Right Diet and Exercise Lower the Risk of Aggressive Tumors in Prostate Cancer Patients

A latest study by researchers at the University of California Los Angeles' Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC) suggests that right diet and physical exercise lower the risk of aggressive tumors in prostate cancer patients.

This is the first study that focuses on the link between adherence to World Cancer Research Fund's (WCRF) eight lifestyle recommendations and lowered risk of aggressive prostate cancer. The recommendations include physical activity, desirable range of body mass index (BMI), food with low caloric density (below 12 kilocalories per 100 gram of food), consumption of red meat, fruits and non starchy vegetables, salt, legumes and unrefined grains.

To test the link between adherence to WCRF recommendations and a lowering of risk of highly aggressive prostate cancer the researchers examined subjects that were a part of the North Carolina-Louisiana Prostate Cancer Project. The study included 2,212 men belonging to the age group of 40-70 who were newly diagnosed with prostate cancer.

They noticed that adherence to less than four of WCRF recommendation increased the risk of aggressive tumors by 38 percent compared to those who followed more than four recommendations. This finding was common between white and black men. The risk of highly aggressive tumors lowered if the person consumed less than 500 grams of red meat per week or less than 125 total kilocalories per 100 grams of food per day.

"Most men are at risk of prostate cancer, but it is the level of aggressiveness of disease that is most clinically relevant," Lenore Arab, PhD, JCCC member and professor in the departments of medicine and biological chemistry and the study lead, said. "These findings suggest that even men with prostate cancer can take control of their disease and moderate its aggressiveness through diet and lifestyle choices."

According to the National Cancer Institute, nearly 238,590 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and nearly 29,720 men will die from the disease this year.