1. I saw this interesting and encouraging news in the newspaper on Sunday and have already passed it on to two patients I know.

However, it is not clear what types of fats were involved, and that can make a difference. In prostate cancer, it's not a low fat diet we strive for, it's a diet low in saturated fat, while consuming a reasonable amount of good fat such as from olive oil, certain nuts and fish.

It's great that a low-fat diet aided patients whose breast cancer did not depend on hormones, but is it possible that women whose cancers do depend on hormones might benefit from a diet low in saturated fat but not low in mono and poly unsaturated fats?

Jim Waldenfels (web site: http://www.mycancerplace.com/profile.php?id=147)

Posted at 10:26PM on Dec 18th 2006 by Jim Waldenfels

2. Hi Jacki, This is great news for me, but I want to find out more about the study. Can you give me more information about the study so I can follow up? Yours is the only post I've seen on it. Thanks! Megan

Posted at 5:54PM on Dec 19th 2006 by Megan Rutherford

3. Two big news items this week. One, the results of a study in which post surgical patients with estrogen receptor negative breast cancer were randomized to a diet, in which one arm of the study reduced their percent calories as fat to 20% or less. These women had a 2/3 drop in mortality, which vastly exceeds that produced by any other therapeutic modality.

The other big news is a lesser drop in mortality in Her2/neu positive patients randomized to Herceptin. This is being puffed up as the breast cancer breakthrough of the century, but it's much less important than the diet study.

Herceptin will make billions for various people.

Reducing fat in the diet would save cancer patients money, cost the "sytem" nothing at all, and make no money for anyone.

Now, for $64,000...the envelope, please.

Which study will have the greatest impact on the medical practices of medical oncologists?

Posted at 10:57AM on Dec 22nd 2006 by Gregory D. Pawelski

4. Women who ate the low-fat diet lost an average of 5–6 pounds. "It (the benefit) could be the result of either the reduction in dietary fat or the weight loss that accompanied the low-fat diet.

And the excellent news about Herceptin:
http://professional.cancerconsultants.com/oncology_main_news.aspx?id=38789

Posted at 11:01PM on Dec 22nd 2006 by hchcec

5. Women with estrogen receptor negative breast cancer cut their recurrence rate by 60% if they stayed with a diet in which fewer than 20% of calories were from fat. Nothing else has ever achieved results like that before. Not chemo. Not radiation. If you are ever diagnosed with estrogen receptor negative breast cancer, you can either wait 20 years for another diet intervention study that will give you the proof beyond reasonable doubt, or you can cut your chance of cancer recurrence by 60% by cutting the fat in your diet by 30%.

Posted at 7:43PM on Jan 24th 2007 by Gregory D. Pawelski