Healthy Diet, Exercise Might Lower Chances of Cancer's Return

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More than 1,000 patients with stage III colon cancer who were participating in a trial of adjuvant chemotherapy were asked to complete questionnaires on their diet for six months after the chemotherapy ended. Researchers then tracked the participants to see if their cancer recurred or if they died.

Dietary patterns fell into two categories: "Western," which involved a high intake of red meat, fat and dessert, and "prudent," meaning high fruit, vegetable, poultry and fish consumption.

The two dietary patterns did not necessarily preclude each other. "Everyone has some score for each of those patterns," Meyerhardt stated. "Someone might eat a lot of hamburger and a lot of vegetables."

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People who consumed the highest levels of the Western diet had almost quadruple the risk of recurrence or death compared with those who consumed the least in this category.

"Those who had a higher intake of a Western-pattern diet characteristic of more red meat and dessert had a significantly higher risk of recurrence and mortality, about four times as high," Meyerhardt said.

What's interesting is that the dietary pattern seemed to have an effect in a relatively short period of time -- years, as opposed to a lifetime. Why? One hypothesis is that this type of diet stimulates some growth factors that allow the growth of microscopic disease, Meyerhardt said.

But it also raises the question of whether the study participants had modified their diet after their diagnosis or whether this was a continuation of past patterns. "Future research should be geared toward answering that very question, whether changing a diet from Western to prudent would in fact reduce the risk of dying from colon cancer," Meropol said.

A second study, also from Dana-Farber, found that previously sedentary breast cancer survivors who exercised reduced the amount of insulin in their blood. It was unclear, however, what effect this might have on cancer recurrence, but the suggestion is that insulin levels may explain why physical activity has been associated with better outcomes.

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