
“I was keen to go on a clinical trial. I wanted to try new cancer treatments and hopefully help future generations.”
This study was trying to find out if women who have had treatment for breast cancer follow dietary advice and make changes to their diet.
Researchers are trying to find out more about the relationship between diet and cancer. It is thought that a healthy balanced diet will protect us from certain types of cancer.
We know less about the role of diet in people who already have cancer treatment, or have had cancer in the past. We do not know if particular diets could help to treat cancer or help to stop cancer from coming back.
This study focused on the diets of women who had already had treatment for breast cancer after the . It looked at how well these women could make changes to the fat content of their diet after specific advice from a dietician.
This study was called ‘W.I.N.S.’ which stands for the Women’s Intervention Nutrition Study.
The researchers found that following dietary advice, women could reduce the amount of fat in their diet by half and keep to this diet for up to 2 years.
The study recruited more than 100 women who had already had treatment for early breast cancer.
All the women taking part attended small group sessions with a dietician over a 2 year period. Both groups were given advice about eating a healthy diet, but
Everybody filled in a food diary at the beginning of the study, every 3 months for the first year and every 6 months in the 2nd year. In the diary, they wrote down everything they had to eat and drink for 4 days. This showed the researchers how much fat the women reported they were eating at different times.
After 3 months, nearly half the women in group 1 (48%) said they had reduced the amount of fat they were eating by at least a half. After 2 years, the number of women saying this had dropped a little to 46%.
In group 2, about 1 in 10 women (11%) said they had reduced the amount of fat they were eating by at least a half after 3 months. In this group, the figure remained about the same after 2 years.
This study showed that women who had specific dietary advice were able to reduce the amount of fat they ate. In the future, researchers hope to try and find out if making these changes to the diet can make it less likely that breast cancer will come back.
We have based this summary on information from the team who ran the trial. The information they sent us has been reviewed independently () and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.
Please note: In order to join a trial you will need to discuss it with your doctor, unless otherwise specified.
Mr R Rainsbury
Breast Cancer Research Trust
National Institute for Health Research Cancer Research Network (NCRN)
Winchester Cancer Research Trust
World Cancer Research Fund
Freephone 0808 800 4040
“I was keen to go on a clinical trial. I wanted to try new cancer treatments and hopefully help future generations.”