13 Nov Health Diet May Reduce Ovarian Cancer Risk in African American Women

Dr. Qin

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Bo (Bonnie) Qin, PhD
Postdoctoral associate at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey

Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response:  Ovarian cancer is among the top five causes of cancer death among women in the US. Compared to white women, African-American women tend to have a worse 5-year survival rate of ovarian cancer. It highlights a critical need for identifying preventive factors in African Americans, particularly through dietary modification, which is relatively low cost and low risk compared to medical treatments.

We found that adherence to an overall healthy dietary pattern i.e. Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI)-2010 may reduce ovarian cancer risk in African-American women, and particularly among postmenopausal women. Adherence to the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans i.e. Healthy Eating Index-2010, were also strongly associated with reduced risk of ovarian cancer among postmenopausal African-American women.

Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?

Response: A healthy diet characterized by high intakes of vegetables, whole fruit, whole grains, nuts and legumes, EPA and DHA which are rich in fish, and other polyunsaturated fats, and low intakes of red/processed meat, trans fat, sodium, and sugar-sweetened beverages may reduce the risk of ovarian cancer for African-American women. However, our results need to be confirmed by future studies.

Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Response: Future studies should be conducted to evaluate these associations in prospective studies, in which diet is assessed before disease and therefore cannot affect recall. Another important question remaining to be answered is whether all aspects of the dietary pattern or selected food or nutrient components confer the observed benefits. This study also calls for research on evaluating dietary quality before diagnosis with ovarian cancer survival and evaluating factors affecting ovarian cancer risk and survival in African Americans and other minorities, for whom little is known.

Citation:

Abstracted presented at the

Eighth American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved, held Nov. 13-16.
The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute.

Bo (Bonnie) Qin, PhD (2015). Health Diet May Reduce Ovarian Cancer Risk in African American Women 

Last Updated on November 13, 2015 by Marie Benz MD FAAD