Using Diet to Fight Recurrent Cancer in Foods and Prostate Cancer Survival - How Foods Fight Cancer

Using Diet to Fight Recurrent Cancer in Foods and Prostate Cancer Survival - How Foods Fight Cancer

Ornish’s approach is extremely promising for men with early prostate disease.
But what about advanced cancer? Evidence suggests that dietary
changes can still play a vital role. Two studies have used special diets in men
who had previously been operated on for prostate cancer but who had
experienced recurrences of their disease. Using a macrobiotic diet emphasizing
whole grains, vegetables, and legumes, while avoiding dairy products
and most meats, nine men with prostate cancer had an average survival of
228 months compared to 72 months for a matched group of men receiving
no special diet.5

A study at the University of Massachusetts tested the benefits of a dietary
change in ten men with prostate cancer that had recurred after surgery. The
diet was based on whole grains, legumes, green and yellow vegetables,
seeds, soy products, and fruit, and the men were also instructed in stressreduction
techniques. To measure the program’s effect, researchers tracked
how long it took for the patients’ PSA levels to double—the longer the PSA
doubling time, the slower the cancer is spreading. Before the study began,
the average PSA doubling time was 6.5 months. But after four months in
the program, it had slowed to 17.7 months, an encouraging finding. In three
of the men, PSA levels actually fell.6