The researchers found that men with prostate cancer who reported diets containing the highest amounts of plants had a 52% lower risk of disease progression and a 53% lower risk of recurrence compared with those whose diets had the lowest amounts of plants.
MARLENE CIMONS: A diet heavy in plant-based foods — fresh fruits and vegetables — can reduce both the progression of prostate cancer and the likelihood that it will return, new research shows. Eating fruits and vegetables has many health benefits, such as reducing the risk of Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and contributes to a longer life span, said Vivian Liu, clinical research coordinator for the Osher Center for Integrative Health at the University of California at San Francisco and lead study author. “Now, we have evidence that they can influence this very common — and sometimes deadly — cancer in men,” she said…
The plant-based sub-study research began in 2004 and involved 2,038 men with early-stage prostate cancer — cancer that had not spread or whose spread was limited. They completed questionnaires about how often they ate about 140 foods and beverages, including such items as broccoli, red meat and potatoes, trying to gauge both the good foods and the bad, Liu said. “We did not tell the men what to eat, since this was an observational study,” she said. “They ate what they wanted to eat and told us what it was.”
Liu and her team focused on men who already had prostate cancer and were at risk of the cancer growing or returning after treatment. The researchers found that men with prostate cancer who reported diets containing the highest amounts of plants had a 52 percent lower risk of disease progression and a 53 percent lower risk of recurrence compared with those whose diets had the lowest amounts of plants. The disease advanced in 204 of the more than 2,000 participants during the study period, Liu said. “This is a small number, which is significant,” she said…
The link between diet and cancer risk has been explored in many studies. Eating certain foods such as low-fat products and shunning others such as red meat have been linked to a lower risk of certain cancers, chief among them breast and colon. For prostate cancer, eating foods rich in the antioxidant lycopene, such as tomatoes, appears to lessen the risk… These findings are consistent with previous research “and extend the health benefits” and “few risks of a plant-based diet,” said Donald Hensrud, associate professor of preventive medicine and nutrition at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine…
Prostate cancer is the second-most common cancer in men, after skin cancer, with an estimated 288,300 new cases and 34,700 deaths projected for this year. Risk factors include age, with most cases occurring in men older than 65; race, with African Americans at an increased risk; and certain gene mutations. SOURCE…
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