Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men.

According to statistics from the American Cancer Society, 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. Sadly, about 1 in 36 men will die as a result of prostate cancer. With an aging population, one can speculate that these rates may likely increase.
 

Caught early enough in diagnosis, effective treatments exist for prostate cancer. A recently published study in the journal Cancer Prevention Research reveals certain diets may actually affect the growth of prostate cancer cells. The UCLA study found that a low-fat diet with fish oil supplements eaten for four to six weeks prior to prostate removal slowed down the growth of prostate cancer cells – the number of rapidly dividing cells – in human prostate cancer tissue compared to a traditional, high-fat Western diet.

Changes Seen in Cell Structure

This short-term study also found that the men on the low-fat, fish oil supplement diet were able to change the composition of both the healthy cells and the cancer cells in the prostate. The study also found that blood obtained from patients after the low-fat, fish oil diet program slowed the growth of prostate cancer cells in a test tube as compared to blood from men on the Western diet, which did not slow cancer growth.
 

“The finding that the low-fat, fish oil diet reduced the number of rapidly dividing cells in the prostate cancer tissue is important because the rate at which the cells are dividing can be predictive of future cancer progression,” said Dr. William Aronson, the study’s first author. “The lower the rate of proliferation, the lesser the chances that the cancer will spread outside the prostate, where it is much harder to treat.”
 

“You truly are what you eat,” said Aronson, a clinical professor of urology. “Based on our animal studies, we were hopeful that we would see the same effects in humans. We are extremely pleased about our findings, which suggest that by altering the diet, we may favorable affect the biology of prostate cancer.”
 

Diet studies often are difficult to evaluate because getting patients to comply with dietary changes can be challenging. However, the food eaten by men in both arms of this study was precisely controlled, Aronson said.
 

“The key to this study was having the meals prepared and delivered to the study participants,” Aronson said. “This resulted in a very high rate of compliance, making the study very well controlled.”
 

We Are What We Eat
 

The Western diet consisted of 40% of calories from fat, generally equivalent to what many Americans consume today. The fat sources also were typical of the American diet, and included high levels of omega-6 fatty acids from corn oil and low levels of fish oil that provide omega-3 fatty acids.
 

The low-fat diet consisted of 15% of calories from fat. Additionally, the men on this diet took five grams of fish oil per day in five capsules, three with breakfast and two with dinner, to provide fish oil omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids have been found to reduce the incidence of heart disease and fight inflammation, and inflammation has been associated with certain cancers.
 

“Preclinical studies suggest that lowering dietary omega-6 fatty acids from corn oil and increasing omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil decreases the risk of prostate cancer development and progression,” the study states. “We found this diet intervention resulted in a decrease in omega-6 vs. omega-3 fatty acid ratios in benign and malignant prostate tissue and a decrease in malignant cell proliferation.”
 

Aronson cautioned that he could not recommend dietary changes based on this study because of its short duration and small sample size. However, based on these results he is organizing a much larger dietary study of 100 men with prostate cancers who have elected active surveillance, meaning they’re not getting any treatment for their disease but are getting regular biopsies and check-ups. 
 

October 28, 2011
The Healthy Mind Network 

______________________________________________

Story Source:
The above story contains original content and information editorially adapted by The Healthy Mind staff from materials provided by UCLA  and EurekAlerts!

Image Credit: Elizabeth Fagerlund 

 ______________________________________________

NOTE: Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional. For more information, please read our TERMS AND CONDITIONS.