Pre-cancer diet a factor in survival
Reported March 02, 2010
CHICAGO, March 2 (UPI) — What a woman ate three to five years prior to a diagnosis of ovarian cancer can impact her chances of survival, U.S. researchers found.
Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago found women who ate higher totals of fruit and vegetables — and higher vegetable consumption alone — up to five years before diagnosis had a survival advantage.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, also observed a statistically significant improvement in survival for those eating the healthier grains. However, eating less-healthy meats — red and processed meat — was associated with a survival time disadvantage.
The study was based on food frequency questionnaires filled out by 351 women diagnosed with incident epithelial ovarian cancer who had participated in a previous case-control study where demographic, clinico-pathologic and lifestyle-related variables including diet had been collected.
“The study findings suggest that food patterns three to five years prior to a diagnosis of epithelial ovarian cancer have the potential to influence survival time,” Therese Dolecek and colleagues said in a statement.
Source : United Press International