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Welcome to my personal thoughts and opinions…travels and personal encounters…momentary acquaintances and lifetime connections as I view life through the pink-tinted spectacles of breast cancer.

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May 3, 2007

LOW FAT DIET AND BREAST CANCER

Having been diagnosed with Invasive Lobular Carcinoma and with Estrogen and Progesterone Receptor Negative Status, it has been an challenge to find anything about treatment beyond chemotherapy and radiation. Because we comprise only 8 to 12 % of all those with Breast Cancer, it seems that studies have not yet conclusively found any treatment after chemotherapy. ER-PR Positive Breast Cancer Survivors, however, have such alternatives as Tamoxifen. Even exercise apparently benefits them more.

But today, I found the article below which is about something that finally benefits those who are ER-PR Negative.

The good news is that there appears to be a relationship between former breast cancer patients eating low fat diets and prevention of the disease's return.

The not-so-good news is that the benefit appears to be confined to women whose breast cancer tumor growth was not hormone (e.g. estrogen) related.

The research was presented this weekend at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium and will be published this coming week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

According to the Associated Press, the U.S. government-sponsored study's results were somewhat surprising. Scientists had expected a low fat diet to have some benefit for most breast cancer survivors. But that wasn't the case.

"Maybe it raises as many issues as it answers," the A.P. quotes John Milner, chief of nutrition science research for the National Cancer Institute, as saying. The research team was led by Dr. Rowan Chlebowski of the University of California at Los Angeles, and it found that there was no significant statistical difference in breast cancer's return among women who were on a low fat diet and whose cancer was hormone-induced.

But that figure changed dramatically when it measured women whose breast cancer wasn't associated with hormones. According to the A.P., just 6 percent of these patients on low-fat diets died compared with 17 percent of the others, a 66 percent lower risk of death.

Now at least, there is something I can work on, to be actively involved in fighting any possible recurrence. I could not imagine myself just sitting back after my treatment ends in July, fearfully waiting for it to come back.

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