by Robert Preidt
Health reporter
How To Diet For Fat Loss - Low-Fat Diet May Cut Pancreatic Cancer Risk
Thursday, (HealthDay News) - A low-fat diet can decrease the risk of older pancreatic cancer, a new study suggests.
The study included more than 46,000 with overweight and obese women between the ages of 50 and 79 that eat high fat diets when they joined a clinical trial between 1993 and 1998.
Some were assigned to eat less fat and more vegetables, fruits and grains (group intervention). Others followed their normal diet (the comparison group). This continued until 2005.
After 15 years of follow-up, 92 cases of pancreatic cancer were identified in the intervention group and 165 in the comparison group. This translates at a rate of 35 cases per 100,000 in the intervention group and 41 per 100,000 in the comparison group, the researchers said.
The study was published online recently in the magazine of the National Cancer Institute. / p>
"Based on previous observational studies, we knew that the diet can play a role in the risk of pancreatic cancer in men and women," said the first author Dr. Li Jiao. She is associate professor of medicine-gastroenterology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
But no clinical trial investigated whether diet change can modify risk, it added in a college news version. Instead, the researchers behind the new study analyzed data from the Women's Health Initiative, a large research project focused on health issues for postmenopausal women.
The analysis showed that "a low fat diet was particularly effective in reducing pancreatic cancer risk in postmenopausal women overweight and obesity," Jiao said.
A low fat diet was not found to decrease the risk of the disease for women whose weight was normal, however. The researchers said they deserve new studies.
In addition, Jiao said the discoveries may not apply to men.
