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Women in the study who were assigned to follow a low-fat diet had more than a 20 percent reduction in their rate of recurrence over five years, the investigators found. Of 975 women assigned to a low-fat diet, 96, or 9.8 percent, had recurrences. But 181 of 1,462 women, or 12.4 percent, who were assigned to maintain their usual diet had their cancer return. The best way to find out whether fat in the diet makes a difference would be to randomly assign thousands of cancer patients to follow, or not follow, a low-fat diet. But many investigators questioned whether it would even be possible to do such a study. Would women really adhere to their assigned diet for years on end and, in particular, would they stay with a diet so low in fat? It enrolled 2,437 postmenopausal women with early stage breast cancer. Of them, 975 were assigned to a diet so low in fat that, Dr. [Rowan T. Chlebowski] said, it was about as low as possible without being a vegetarian diet. They consumed on average 33.3 grams of fat a day. The 1,462 women in the control group, who were instructed to follow their usual diet, consumed 51.3 grams of fat a day

Of 975 women assigned to a low-fat diet, 96, or 9.8 per cent, had recurrences. But 181 of 1,462 women, or 12.4 per cent, who were assigned to maintain their usual diet had their cancer return. Although the treatments varied, the two groups were equivalent because the women were assigned at random to follow a low-fat diet. The additional benefit from diet, [Rowan T. Chlebowski] said, was equivalent to adding a new drug to their regimen. The study began in 1994 and enrolled 2,437 postmenopausal women with early-stage breast cancer. Of them, 975 were assigned to a diet so low in fat that, Chlebowski said, it was about as low as possible without being a vegetarian diet. They consumed on average 33.3 grams of fat a day

New studies show that Americans generally receive high-quality cancer care but that closer monitoring is needed to explain significant geographic variations in practices. Also, cancer specialists say they need improved training in communication so they can better advise terminally ill patients about how long they have to live and the care they wish to receive. The findings were presented at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology here Sunday. In the United States, about half a million people die of cancer each year

In the study, survival strongly correlated with the number of lymph nodes removed, Dr. [Natalie G. Coburn] said. Standard guidelines call for removal and examination of at least 15 lymph nodes for stomach cancer. Adherence to the guidelines varied geographically. More than twice as many patients in Hawaii (33.4 percent) survived five years after detection of stomach cancer than in Utah (16.2 percent). In Hawaii, the median number of lymph nodes removed was 15, compared with 6 in Utah. But even in Hawaii, 47.5 percent of patients did not have enough lymph nodes removed, Dr. Coburn said

A drug now used to treat breast cancer might be able to prevent prostate cancer in men with a precancerous condition, doctors said here Saturday. Another study suggested that the widely used cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins might stave off breast cancer. The prostate cancer study was a randomized clinical trial involving 514 men with precancerous lesions analogous to polyps for colon cancer. The condition is called prostate intraepithelial neoplasia, or P.I.N. After statistically controlling for a number of factors like age, smoking and diabetes, the researchers found a 51 percent lower risk of breast cancer among the statin users, Dr. [Vikas Khurana] said. He said data on the specific statins that were prescribed have not been analyzed yet

A drug now used to treat breast cancer might be able to prevent prostate cancer in men with a precancerous condition, doctors said yesterday. Another study suggested that the widely used cholesterol- lowering drugs called statins might stave off breast cancer. The prostate cancer study was a randomized clinical trial involving 514 men with precancerous lesions analogous to polyps for colon cancer. The condition is called prostate intraepithelial neoplasia, or PIN. After statistically controlling for a number of factors like age, smoking and diabetes, the researchers found a 51 percent lower risk of breast cancer among the statin users, [Vikas Khurana] said. He said data on the specific statins that were prescribed have not been analyzed yet

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A drug now used to treat breast cancer might be able to prevent prostate cancer in men with a precancerous condition, doctors said yesterday. Another study suggested that the widely used cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins might stave off breast cancer. The statin study analyzed medical records of 40,000 women in the database of the Veterans Affairs medical system. It found that women who used statins were half as likely to develop breast cancer as those who did not. But such studies looking back at medical records are not as reliable as clinical trials. There is evidence that estrogen, normally thought of as the female hormone, also helps fuel prostate-cancer growth. Dr. Mitchell Steiner, professor of urology at the University of Tennessee, theorized that blocking estrogen might provide a treatment or preventative with fewer side effects

Pancreatic cancer: A study found that the drug gemcitabine can reduce the recurrence of pancreatic cancer when used after surgery to remove a tumor. The drug, sold as Gemzar by Eli Lilly, is now approved for treating pancreatic cancer after surgery is no longer possible. But the finding might apply to only about 20 percent of patients, since most cases of pancreatic cancer are diagnosed after it is too late for surgery, said Dr. Michael Arning, medical director for the drug at Lilly

A drug called Avastin, which works by choking off the blood supply to tumors, prolongs the lives of patients with lung cancer and also significantly delays the worsening of breast cancer, according to the results of clinical trials. The cancer drug Herceptin, when used after surgery to remove breast tumors, cuts by about half the chance that breast cancer will recur. Avastin, when added to chemotherapy, extended the median survival of people with advanced lung cancer about two months. After two years, only 22.1 percent of those who got Avastin were still alive, although that was an improvement over the 16.9 percent who got only chemotherapy

Avastin, when added to chemotherapy, extended the median survival of people with advanced lung cancer by about two months. After two years, 22.1 percent of those who took Avastin were still alive, an improvement over the 16.9 percent who received only chemotherapy. Avastin can cause fatal bleeding in the lungs. About one-third of people with nonsmall-cell lung cancer would not be eligible for the drug based on criteria used in the clinical trial. But even though the trial excluded those patients to minimize bleeding risk, eight patients who took Avastin died from complications of the treatment itself, five from bleeding in the lungs. This compared with two deaths from chemotherapy alone. Some newer but still unapproved drugs, however, seek to improve on Avastin. They are pills, while Avastin requires an intravenous infusion. And they try to block not only VEGF but another protein, platelet-derived growth factor, that also spurs the formation of blood vessels. Some also try to block other proteins that spur tumor growth, so these newer drugs might best be called multitargeted therapies