PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Western diet may increase risk of death after prostate cancer diagnosis

2015-06-01
(Press-News.org) Boston, MA -- After a prostate cancer diagnosis, eating a diet higher in red and processed meat, high-fat dairy foods, and refined grains--known as a Western diet--may lead to a significantly higher risk of both prostate cancer-related mortality and overall mortality compared with eating a diet rich in vegetables, fruits, fish, whole grains, and healthy oils, according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The study, which appears online June 1, 2015 in the journal Cancer Prevention Research, offers insight on how diet may help improve survivorship for the nearly three million men living with prostate cancer in the U.S.

"There is currently very little evidence to counsel men living with prostate cancer on how they can modify their lifestyle to improve survival. Our results suggest that a heart-healthy diet may benefit these men by specifically reducing their chances of dying of prostate cancer," said Jorge Chavarro, assistant professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard Chan School and senior author of the study.

Researchers examined health and diet data from 926 men participating in the Physicians' Health Study I and II who were diagnosed with prostate cancer. They followed the men for an average of 14 years after their diagnosis, grouping them into quartiles according to whether they followed a Western dietary pattern or a "prudent" (higher consumption of vegetables, fruits, fish, legumes, and whole grains) dietary pattern.

They found that men who ate mostly a Western diet (those in the highest quartile of the Western dietary pattern) had two-and-a-half times higher risk of prostate cancer-related death--and a 67% increased risk of death from any cause--than those in the lowest quartile. Men who ate mostly a "prudent" diet had a 36% lower risk of death from all causes.

"These results are encouraging and add to the scant literature on this area, but it is important to keep in mind that all study participants are physicians and most are white. Therefore it is very important that our results are replicated in other studies with more diverse socioeconomic and racial/ethnic backgrounds," said lead author Meng Yang, research fellow at the Harvard Chan School.

INFORMATION:

Other Harvard Chan School authors of the study included Julie Batista, research associate, and Jing Ma, associate professor, both from the Department of Epidemiology; and Meir Stampfer, professor of epidemiology and nutrition.

Funding came from the U.S. Department of Defense (W81XWH-11-1-0529 to J.E. Chavarro), the National Institutes of Health (CA42182 to J. Ma; CA58684, CA90598, and CA141298 to M.J. Stampfer), and the Prostate Cancer Foundation (to S.A. Kenfield). This work was also made possible by grants supporting the PHS trial (CA97193 to Gaziano, CA40360 and HL34595 to Buring), the Boston Nutrition and Obesity Research Center (P30DK046200; PI: Fried), the Harvard TREC Center (1U54CA155626-01; PI: Hu), and the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center SPORE in Prostate Cancer (P50CA90381; PI: Kantoff).

"Dietary Patterns after Prostate Cancer Diagnosis in Relation to Disease-Specific and Total Mortality," Meng Yang, Stacey A. Kenfield, Erin L. Van Blarigan, Julie L. Batista, Howard D. Sesso, Jing Ma, Meir J. Stampfer, and Jorge E. Chavarro, Cancer Prevention Research, online June 1, 2015, doi: 10.1158/1940-6207

Visit the Harvard Chan School website for the latest news, press releases, and multimedia offerings.

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health brings together dedicated experts from many disciplines to educate new generations of global health leaders and produce powerful ideas that improve the lives and health of people everywhere. As a community of leading scientists, educators, and students, we work together to take innovative ideas from the laboratory to people's lives--not only making scientific breakthroughs, but also working to change individual behaviors, public policies, and health care practices. Each year, more than 400 faculty members at Harvard Chan teach 1,000-plus full-time students from around the world and train thousands more through online and executive education courses. Founded in 1913 as the Harvard-MIT School of Health Officers, the School is recognized as America's oldest professional training program in public health.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Patient information too high for patients' literacy: New research

2015-06-01
More than 90 per cent of educational materials written for kidney disease patients is higher than an average patient's literacy, according to a new study published in the June issue of the National Kidney Foundation's American Journal of Kidney Diseases. "Our study suggests most patient information materials are not fit for their intended purpose, and that organisations are producing materials that may be too difficult for their intended audience to understand," said Angela Webster, lead researcher and an Associate Professor Clinical Epidemiology at the University of ...

Massive weight loss fuels surge in plastic surgery

Massive weight loss fuels surge in plastic surgery
2015-06-01
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill., June 1, 2015 - An increase in the number of weight loss surgeries in the U.S. is beginning to have a ripple effect in plastic surgery, according to new data released today by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). Procedures specifically associated with massive weight loss, including tummy tucks, thigh lifts, breast lifts and upper arm lifts, grew at their fastest rate in four years in 2014, according to the report. That follows a similar increase in the growth of weight loss surgeries. "We think there is a correlation between the two ...

Teen drinking countered by laws that curb adult binge drinking

2015-06-01
Boston - A new study by Boston University and Boston Medical Center (BMC) researchers reveals that U.S. states with stronger alcohol policies have lower rates of youth overall drinking and binge drinking. The study's results, published in the journal Pediatrics, further suggest that the link is largely a result of policies intended mostly for adults and their effects on reducing adult binge drinking. The first-of-its kind study, led by a multi-disciplinary research team at BMC and the BU School of Public Health (BUSPH), reviewed data on 29 youth-specific and adult policies ...

Quick to laugh or smile? It may be in your genes

2015-06-01
EVANSTON, Ill. --- Why do some people immediately burst into laughter after a humorous moment, while others can barely crack a smile? New research examining emotional reactivity suggests one of the answers may lie in a person's DNA. In a new study linking a gene to positive emotional expressions such as smiling and laughing, researchers demonstrated that people with a certain genetic variant -- those with short alleles of the gene 5-HTTLPR -- smiled or laughed more while watching cartoons or subtly amusing film clips than people with long alleles. Previous research ...

WSU researchers see link between hunter-gatherer cannabis use, fewer parasites

2015-06-01
VANCOUVER, Wash.--Washington State University researchers have found that the more hunter-gatherers smoke cannabis, the less they are infected by intestinal worms. The link suggests that they may unconsciously be, in effect, smoking medical marijuana. Ed Hagen, a WSU Vancouver anthropologist, explored cannabis use among the Aka foragers to see if people away from the cultural and media influences of Western civilization might use plant toxins medicinally. "In the same way we have a taste for salt, we might have a taste for psychoactive plant toxins, because these things ...

Discovery could improve radiotherapy for wide range of cancers

2015-06-01
Cancer Research UK scientists have discovered how giving a class of drugs called AKT inhibitors in combination with radiotherapy might boost its effectiveness across a wide range of cancers, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation today*. Tumours often grow so quickly that some of the cells do not have access to the body's blood supply, causing them to become oxygen-starved. This rapid growth usually sends signals to the cells to die, but in cancers with faults in a gene called p53 -- present in at least half of all cancers -- this signal ...

Article concludes no reason for laughing gas to be withdrawn from operating theaters

2015-06-01
A debate at this year's Euroanaesthesia meeting in Berlin will focus on whether laughing gas (nitrous oxide) should be banned from the operating room. The debate coincides with an article on the "Current place of nitrous oxide in clinical practice" published in the European Journal of Anaesthesiology, that concludes there is "no clinically relevant evidence for the withdrawal of nitrous oxide from the armamentarium of anaesthesia practice or procedural sedation." The article has been prepared by a special taskforce of the European Society of Anaesthesiology (ESA), which ...

American surgery patients -- more pain medication, yet more pain!

2015-06-01
New research presented at this year's Euroanaesthesia conference in Berlin shows that American patients undergoing orthopaedic surgery* receive more treatments for pain and that their experience of pain differs in some aspects to orthopaedic patients internationally. The study is by Drs Winfried Meissner and Ruth Zaslansky, University Hospital Jena, Germany, and Dr C. Richard Chapman Utah, Pain Research Center, Salt Lake City, USA. All researchers are part of the international PAIN OUT** research group. Poorly controlled pain after surgery is a major problem internationally ...

Preoperative statins reduce mortality in coronary artery bypass graft surgery

2015-06-01
Research presented at this year's Euroanaesthesia exploring the protective effect of various heart medications that patients are taking before undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery concludes that statins reduce the risk of death by two thirds, or 67 percent, while no consistent effects were seen for other medications. The study is reported by Assistant Professor Dr. Robert Sanders, Anesthesiology & Critical care Trials & Interdisciplinary Outcomes Network (ACTION), Department of Anesthesiology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WN, USA, and Drs. Puja Myles ...

Immunotherapy drug improves survival for common form of lung cancer

2015-06-01
In a head-to-head clinical trial comparing standard chemotherapy with the immunotherapy drug nivolumab, researchers found that people with squamous-non-small cell lung cancer who received nivolumab lived, on average, 3.2 months longer than those receiving chemotherapy. Squamous non-small cell lung cancer accounts for 25 to 30 percent of all lung malignancies. Results of the trial, reported in the May 31 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the American Society for Clinical Oncology 2015 annual meeting, also showed that after a year, the nivolumab ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Development of a global innovative drug in eye drop form for treating dry age-related macular degeneration

Scientists unlock secrets behind flowering of the king of fruits

Texas A&M researchers illuminate the mysteries of icy ocean worlds

Prosthetic material could help reduce infections from intravenous catheters

Can the heart heal itself? New study says it can

Microscopic discovery in cancer cells could have a big impact

Rice researchers take ‘significant leap forward’ with quantum simulation of molecular electron transfer

Breakthrough new material brings affordable, sustainable future within grasp

How everyday activities inside your home can generate energy

Inequality weakens local governance and public satisfaction, study finds

Uncovering key molecular factors behind malaria’s deadliest strain

UC Davis researchers help decode the cause of aggressive breast cancer in women of color

Researchers discovered replication hubs for human norovirus

SNU researchers develop the world’s most sensitive flexible strain sensor

Tiny, wireless antennas use light to monitor cellular communication

Neutrality has played a pivotal, but under-examined, role in international relations, new research shows

Study reveals right whales live 130 years — or more

Researchers reveal how human eyelashes promote water drainage

Pollinators most vulnerable to rising global temperatures are flies, study shows

DFG to fund eight new research units

Modern AI systems have achieved Turing's vision, but not exactly how he hoped

Quantum walk computing unlocks new potential in quantum science and technology

Construction materials and household items are a part of a long-term carbon sink called the “technosphere”

First demonstration of quantum teleportation over busy Internet cables

Disparities and gaps in breast cancer screening for women ages 40 to 49

US tobacco 21 policies and potential mortality reductions by state

AI-driven approach reveals hidden hazards of chemical mixtures in rivers

Older age linked to increased complications after breast reconstruction

ESA and NASA satellites deliver first joint picture of Greenland Ice Sheet melting

Early detection model for pancreatic necrosis improves patient outcomes

[Press-News.org] Western diet may increase risk of death after prostate cancer diagnosis