In the past 50 years, the spotlight on our gastronomic habits has revealed that what we eat affects more than just our waistlines.
Researchers around the world are focusing on diet in an attempt to pinpoint how specific foods work inside the body, and whether or not there is such a thing as a smoking gun that instigates or exacerbates cancer and other serious chronic illnesses.
It’s no secret that the rich Western diet -- high in animal fats, poor in fruit, vegetables and grains consumption -- has played a starring role. We like our bacon cheeseburgers, T-bone steaks and French fries, but does that really make us ticking time bombs?
According to the research, maybe.
Researchers at UCLA wanted to know if the traditional Western diet played a role in prostate cancer, the most common cancer among American men.
It turns out it does.
The typical Western diet increases pro-inflammatory substances inside the body that have been associated with cancer. These substances contribute to cancer cell survival, proliferation and migration.
Researchers call this the cell cycle progression (CCP), a measure used to predict whether or not cancer is likely to develop or return.
The findings are especially important for men previously diagnosed with prostate cancer because the higher the CCP score, the higher your risk for developing future aggressive prostate cancer.
While not every prostate cancer is deadly, the CCP score can predict with reasonable accuracy which patients will potentially die from their cancer.
However, William Aronson, a clinical professor of urology at UCLA and chief of urologic oncology at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and colleagues have found a way to alter the cell’s composition.
Men with prostate cancer who ate a low-fat diet and took fish oil supplements had lower levels of pro-inflammatory substances in their blood and a lower CCP score than men who ate a typical Western diet, UCLA researchers reveal in a study published in the early online edition of Cancer Prevention Research.
The new study is a follow-up to a smaller 2011 study by Aronson and his team in which they found a low-fat diet with fish oil supplements eaten for four to six weeks prior to prostate removal slowed the growth of cancer cells in human prostate cancer tissue compared to a traditional, high-fat Western diet.
“These studies show that, in men with prostate cancer, you really are what you eat,” Aronson said in a press release. “The studies suggest that by altering the diet, we may favorably affect the biology of prostate cancer.”
In this study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, Aronson wanted to examine what potential biological mechanisms were at work in the low-fat fish oil diet that may be providing protection against prostate cancer growth and spread.
To do this, the researchers measured levels of the pro-inflammatory substances in the blood and examined the prostate cancer tissue to determine the CCP score.
Further, Aronson and his team analyzed one pro-inflammatory substance called leukotriene B4 (LTB4) and found that lower blood levels of LTB4 after the diet also coincided in lower CCP scores.
Now Aronson has been funded to start a prospective, randomized trial at UCLA in 2014 that aims to monitor slow-growing prostate cancer in 100 men using imaging and biopsy instead of treating the disease.
Lynette Summerill is an award-winning writer and Scuba enthusiast who lives in San Diego with her husband and two beach loving dogs. In addition to writing about cancer-related issues for EmpowHER, her work has been seen in publications internationally.
Sources:
Men with Prostate Cancer Who Ate a Low-Fat Fish Oil Diet Showed Changes in their Cancer Tissue that May Help Prevent Disease Growth and Recurrence. UCLA Press Release, Kim Irwin. 18 Nov. 2013 and You are what you eat: Low-fat diet changes prostate cancer tissue. UCLA Newsroom News release. By Kim Irwin, 18 Nov. 2013.
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/you-are-what-you-eat-low-fat-diet-249402.aspx
“Effect of a Low-fat Fish Oil Diet on Pro-inflammatory Eicosanoids and Cell Cycle Progression Score in Men Undergoing Radical Prostatectomy.” William J. Aronson et al., Cancer Prev Res; Published OnlineFirst October 29, 2013; doi:10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-13-0261. Abstract online:
http://cancerpreventionresearch.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2013/10/29/1940-6207.CAPR-13-0261.abstract
Prostate Cancer Key Statistics. American Cancer Society.
http://www.cancer.org/cancer/prostatecancer/detailedguide/prostate-cancer-key-statistics
Reviewed December 5, 2013
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith