Diet and prognosis of breast cancer

Abstract

The relationship between the occurrence of breast cancer and dietary intake, in particular a high-fat diet, has attracted much attention in recent years. In addition, the prognosis of breast cancer patients on the basis of dietary intake is also an interesting subject. The present study utilized breast cancer patients whose dietary intake was carefully assessed about one decade previously in a case-control study to determine whether dietary intake was indeed related to the patients' prognosis. The study included 212 patients who underwent a surgical operation between 1975 and 1978. They were followed-up until 1987, and a total of 47 breast cancer deaths were certified. The 5- and 10-year relative survival rates were 78.5% and 75.3%, respectively. The older patients tended to ingest smaller amounts of all nutrients, except animal fat from fish. Height was significantly correlated with total animal protein intake, whereas there was no significant correlation between body mass index and intake of any nutrient. Although the age-adjusted mean values of the nutrient intakes, other than vegetable fat, decreased with advancing stage, the differences were statistically insignificant. The results of multivariate analyses, in which some confounding factors (e.g., clinical stage) were adjusted using a proportional hazards model, showed that all hazards ratios in each nutrient were close to unity, and no dose-response relationship was seen. The present investigation did not provide any support for the hypothesis that a high-fat diet is a survival determinant for breast cancer patients.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Lifestyle changes and breast cancer prognosis: a review

“…In contrast, the Nurses' Health Study did not conclude that a low fat diet after diagnosis leads to a survival advantage [53]. The same conclusion was reached by a prospective study of 213 breast cancer patients in Japan; it should be remarked that Japanese women develop breast cancer at an earlier age and consume relatively small amounts of fat (mean dietary fat intake was about 23% of calories) [54].…”

Dietary factors and survival from breast cancer

“…Of the few studies that have investigated the relationship between dietary fat and survival from breast cancer (3)(4)(5)(6)(7), two (3,6) showed decreased survival in association with a relatively high fat intake, whereas the remainder showed no association. However, adjustment for energy intake was not performed in any of these studies, and it is not clear whether the positive findings reflect an association with fat per se or whether they arose as a result of confounding by energy intake.…”

Dietary and familial determinants of 10-year survival among patients with gastric carcinoma

“…Premorbid dietary factors have been analyzed in relation to the survival of patients who are affected by breast carcinoma, [12][13][14][15][16][17] pancreatic and prostate carcinoma, 18 lung carcinoma, 19 and laryngeal carcinoma. 20 Whereas some of these studies were negative, others showed an improved survival associated with high vegetable consumption (or with high intake of nutrients from vegetable sources) and a worse prognosis associated with high fat intake.…”