From KSDK News, July 5, 2005

KSDK-It was news that shook the medical world in May, 2005. Researchers in California showed certain women with breast cancer who ate a low-fat diet reduced their risk of the cancer coming back.

Doctors admit they still don''t fully understand the connection. But it adds to growing evidence that dietary fat may play a role in whether breast cancer returns.

"We know for instance women who become obese after they''ve had a breast cancer diagnosis increase their risk of recurrence. We know that women who are in extremely caloric deprived environments have lower breast cancer risk," explains Dr. Michael Naughton, an oncologist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

For five years, researchers in Los Angeles studied 25 hundred post-menopausal women treated for early stage breast cancer. One group ate normally, the other a low-fat diet. Eating less fat didn''t significantly lower cancer recurrence in women with estrogen positive tumors. But it lowered the risk of recurrence in women with estrogen negative tumors by 42 percent.

"I think it gives us enough weight to suggest that we should be guiding our women toward what we''d consider healthy eating, low fat diet, ideal body weight," says Dr. Naughton.

So how much fat did breast cancer survivors in the low-fat group eat? Consider the average healthy eater gets about 30 per cent of calories from fat. That''s about 67 grams a day. The low-fat dieters in the study got less than 20 per cent of their calories from fat, or just 33 grams a day.

"I think for a lot of Americans that would be a dramatic change in their diet. I think in terms of a reasonable, healthy, balanced diet that would be attainable. You can''t eat at McDonald''s very often, for instance, or if you do you have to, be very selective and eat the salads and stay away from the heavy fat content. But it''s definitely achievable."

Cutting fat in your diet means eating lean cuts of meat, increasing your intake of fruits and vegetables and staying away from fried and processed foods.