An anti-inflammatory diet may help colon cancer patients live longer, study says

Eating food that lowers inflammation in the body may help people with advanced colon cancer survive longer, according to research presented at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.

Eating food that lowers inflammation in the body may help people with advanced colon cancer survive longer, according to research presented at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.

The findings, presented Sunday, suggest that cancer patients can have at least some control over the outcome of their disease, even at later stages.

“This is the most common question that patients ask me when I see them in clinic,” said Dr. Kimmie Ng, an author of the new study and associate chief of the division of gastrointestinal oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. “What is it that I can do myself to try to improve my chances, help me live as long as possible?”

Ng’s study — which has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal — looked at the diets of 1,625 adults with stage 3 colon cancer, meaning the cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes, but not to other parts of the body.

With standard care — surgery and chemotherapy in most cases — about three-quarters of patients can expect to live at least five years after their diagnosis, according to the American Cancer Society.