This question lingers on and on; however, there are some research-based results that can shed some light on this matter–in a first ever experiment conducted to show that low-fat diets could help prevent a return of breast cancer reveals that the benefit was almost exclusively to women that experienced the tumor growth not driven by hormones. It is very heartening to see that such a study was conducted and with such a large follow-up. Though the results can’t prove it, but they still suggest that these women could be able to cut their risk of dying by up to 66%, if they stick to such kind of diets. 

The results are encouraging, but it is not for the women whose cancer are due to the hormones. Unluckily, this is the case with the vast majority of breast cancer patients, and there seems little effect that the diet change seemed to make. Another question that remains unanswered is that whether the patients who have experienced some benefit are actually helped by cutting fat or by the weight loss that resulted. It is clear that there might be more questions that the health specialists would like to know, and more research might be needed to explore these areas. However, the study has surely opened a new way to get to the root of things that are related to any relation between low-fat diets and the reoccurrence of breast cancer.

The preliminary findings of this illustrious study were reported at a cancer conference in 2005, and these will appear in this week’s Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study presented more updated results with longer follow-up on many of the original participants on Saturday at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. We can clearly see that this will fuel-up the research on breast cancer and the relation with low-fat diets, and perhaps we might be able to develop a comprehensive relationship that could lead to help the women suffering from it.