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Harvard Medical School scientists have found that some kinds of fat in the diet accelerate the progression of prostate cancer and make it turn deadly. Their study was reported in the October 6th issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Some fats protect, others pose a danger. While saturated fats, fish oils, and most vegetable fats were not linked to greater risk of invasive cancer, mono- unsaturates increased the risk.
Among the so-called essential fatty acids, diets high in linoleic acid appeared to cut the cancer-progression risk by 40 percent, whereas high consumption of alpha-linolenic acid tripled the risk of prostate cancer's spread. Diets high in red meat, butter or chicken with the skin on increased the risk; skinless chicken, and dairy foods other than butter decreased it.
In another report, scientists at Wayne State University say it may be time to "intervene in the progression of [prostate] disease through diet."
A UCLA study in the September issue of Epidemiology, performed jointly with Swedish scientists, found that people who endured serious aggravation on the job ran a 5.5 times greater risk of colorectal cancer than those without such pressures. They report that people who work in high-pressure situations, over which they have little control, face the highest risks.
In a separate but related study, Japanese scientists showed that rats which were forced to watch other rats get electric shocks developed stress-induced precancerous DNA lesions of their own. Together, these reports point to an important psychological component to colorectal cancer, and suggest a possible mechanism for it.