Veggies may boost cancer survival

Ovarian cancer has a particularly dire prognosis, causing the deaths of about 14,000 women a year in the United States. Now, a team of Australian researchers has found that what a woman eats in the year before her first symptoms may affect her survival.

Researchers at Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Brisbane analyzed the detailed food questionnaires completed in the early 1990s by 609 women who were newly diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The women were followed for about seven years.

Those who had eaten the most vegetables and vitamin E-containing foods in the previous year were most likely to survive for at least five years after diagnosis.

Getting nutrients in supplements, however, had no effect. Also, the slimmest women in the study had a slight survival advantage.

The overall five-year survival rate among those participating was 45%. After eliminating the effects of the stage of disease when diagnosed, age and other factors, the researchers found that 50% of those who had eaten more than five servings a day of all types of vegetables were alive five years after diagnosis.

Cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and broccoli, had the greatest benefit: 49% of those who ate nearly a serving a day survived five years, compared with 42% who ate half a serving.

Although the improvements may seem small, they raise the possibility that eating just a few more vegetables, particularly cruciferous vegetables, could be potentially valuable.

Several theories support the benefit of cruciferous vegetables. One is that they contain substances that help detoxify carcinogens. Another is that they contain a substance similar to a weak estrogen that might protect against hormone-related cancers.

Lead author Christina Nagle, a lecturer in the School of Population Health at the University of Queensland, says it is too early to say whether a vegetable-rich diet is helpful after diagnosis. “This is the first study that has examined dietary factors and ovarian cancer survival, so more research needs to be done,” she says. However, she adds: “We can be pretty sure that there would be no negative effects [of eating more vegetables] on survival and there are benefits for general health.”

The study was published in the Aug. 20 issue of the International Journal of Cancer.