Diet, Supplements Do Little for Cancer Patients

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Baron said the U.K. review included studies that are quite broad, involving people with cancer as well as people with benign lesions. While overall the studies failed to show any value for most supplements in reducing cancer recurrence, Baron agreed that there is some evidence that calcium -- which he has studied -- looks promising as a way of preventing the return of colorectal polyps.

The U.K. report is a "very good paper," said Dr. Dimitrios Trichopoulos, a cancer specialist at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. But he stressed that trials that focus on disease prevention, such as those reviewed in the analysis, have inherent limitations.

"They can't last long enough [to obtain definitive answers]," he said. It's also difficult to get study participants to comply with specific interventions over an extended period of time, he added.

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Still, the common-sense advice to eat right still holds.

"Diet still works," Trichopoulos said, although its effect on cancer recurrence and prevention may not be as great as experts once believed. "My guess is, diet could reduce cancer by 10 to 15 percent," he said. Trichopoulos suggests a diet with little red meat and high amounts of fruits, vegetables and plant based foods.

A second study, published in the same issue of the journal, found that garlic and vitamin supplements did not reduce the prevalence of precancerous stomach lesions or gastric cancer.

In the study, researchers at the Beijing Institute for Cancer Research and the U.S. National Cancer Institute tracked more than 3,000 Chinese adults, ages 35 to 64, who were assigned to one of three treatment groups or a placebo group.

The study did find that one-time use of an antibiotic to kill off the Helicobacter pylori stomach bacteria -- suspected of causing ulcers and stomach cancer-- did reduce the severity and progression of precancerous gastric lesions, however.

More information

For more on healthy eating, head to the American Dietetic Association (www.eatright.org ).

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