Low-fat diet may cut ovarian cancer risk

A low-fat diet may protect women from ovarian cancer, US researchers said.
Researchers tracked about 49,000 post-menopausal women for about eight years. About 40 percent of them were asked to cut nearly in half the amount of fat in their diet. The others were asked to eat their usual diet.
No difference was seen in ovarian cancer risk in the first four years of the study. But in the final four years, the women who ate a diet lower in fat were 40 percent less likely to develop this cancer than the other women, the study found.
The research was the latest to investigate whether there is a link between diet and disease. Previous studies have implicated dietary factors in some other types of cancer.
Ovarian cancer is not often diagnosed in its early stages when it is most treatable, and its causes have remained unclear.
A personal history of breast cancer or a family history of breast or ovarian cancer appear to raise risk for the disease. Previous research had found a higher rate of death from ovarian cancer in overweight women, with the risk 50 percent higher in the heaviest women.
But a possible link with a high-fat diet had remained controversial.
Symptoms of ovarian cancer are vague and often are attributed to other illnesses. The tumor commonly has spread beyond the ovaries once the disease is diagnosed.
Women who had the largest fat intake before entering the study experienced the largest reduction in risk, the researchers said.
Source: Journal of the National Cancer Institute