THURSDAY, May 15 (HealthDay News) -- Eating less polyunsaturated
fat, the kind often found in baked and fried goods, helps prevent
prostate cancer in mice, according to researchers.
The finding by University of California, Los Angeles, scientists
is believed to be the first of its kind in a mouse model that
closely mimics human cancer.
The fat used in the study, published in the April 15 issue of
the
Cancer Research, came mostly from corn oil, which is made up
primarily of omega-6 fatty acids -- the polyunsaturated fat
commonly found in Western diets.
Mice that ate a low-fat diet, in which just 12 percent of their
calories come from fat, had a 27 percent reduced incidence of
prostate cancer compared to mice who ate a more traditional
Western-type diet, in which 40 percent of the calories came from
fat.
Research also found that precancerous prostate cells, or those
that would soon become cancer, grew much more slowly in the mice
eating the low-fat diet.
"A low-fat, high-fiber diet combined with weight loss and
exercise is well known to be healthy in terms of heart disease and
is known to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes, so that
would be a healthy choice to make," study senior author William
Aronson, a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher, said in a prepared
statement. "Whether or not it will prevent prostate cancer in
humans remains to be seen."
Previous studies done in Aronson's lab showed that a low-fat
diet slowed the growth of aggressive human prostate cancers in mice
and helped them live longer.
Aronson found that mice on the low-fat diet had higher levels of
a protein in their blood that binds to insulin during the time when
the precancerous prostate lesions usually develop. Aronson believes
the low-fat diet caused the increase in the binding protein, and
the protein helped prevent prostate cancer from thriving.
A short-term study in men assigned either a diet high in
polyunsaturated fat or a low-fat diet with fish oil supplements
will now take place to further determine whether diets affect
malignant and benign human prostate tissue, Aronson said.
"We're looking at specific markers and growth factors in human
tissue known to be important for development and progression of
prostate cancer," he said. "It's this work we hope will lead to
longer term prevention strategies incorporating dietary
changes."
More information
The National Cancer Institute has more about
prostate cancer.
