New Study Suggests Link Between Diet and Lower Incidence of Breast Cancer Recurrence

In a potentially groundbreaking study related to breast cancer treatments, doctors found that women who suffered from breast cancer who followed a low-fat diet were less likely to experience a resurgence of tumors than those who followed a normal diet.

As a health care program student or someone with a health care job, you'll want to follow important medical studies like this one. To the extent that they alter the way a doctor views a disease and the corresponding treatments available, such studies can be vitally important.

Read Health Care Studies Critically

The verdict is still out over whether adherence to a low-fat diet truly helps women fight breast cancer. Just because a study suggests a certain cause and effect relationship, it doesn't mean it is so. As such, another important aspect of health care programs and jobs is learning to read scientific studies in a critical manner. In the case of the breast cancer/low-fat diet study, there were many factors that prevented medical experts from immediately accepting the results of the study at face value and recommending a low-fat diet as an effective breast cancer treatment.

First, studies that involve changes in diet can pose challenges. In a May 17, 2005 article covering the study, the New York Times reported that the women following the low-fat diet could have reduced their recurrence of breast cancer due to other factors, such as the introduction of new foods to their diet or the loss of weight that resulted from their adoption of the low-fat regimen.

This illustrates an important point - studies must be read critically before they are used to drastically alter a health care treatment. Recommending a low-fat diet as a means of treatment would be premature and potentially harmful to patients to the extent that it is used in place of proven effective and safe methods.

Health Care Programs and Jobs

During your health care program studies, you may be introduced to topics like this one where you'll be asked to consider an issue from various perspectives depending on your area of specialization. Many health care jobs, such as doctor, nurse, and nutritionist, to name a few, may be closely affected by new developments in the realm of medical research and treatment.

Sources:

• The New York Times, Study of Breast Cancer Patients Finds Benefit in Low-fat Diet, 17, May, 2005.