Mediterranean-style diet may halve womb cancer risk

A Mediterranean-style diet, already associated with good health and prevention of heart disease or a stroke, could also significantly cut the risk of womb cancer, an Italian study suggests.

Researchers who looked at the eating habits of over 5,000 women report that those who adhered most closely to food groups within such a diet lowered their risk of developing the disease by more than half. There were benefits too for those who stuck only slightly less strictly to the diet’s components.

The results are reported in the British Journal of Cancer but the charity Cancer Research UK, which owns it, was cautious, partly because the study was based on the women’s memories of what they had eaten.

The Italian team broke the Mediterranean diet down into nine elements – lots of vegetables, fruits and nuts, pulses, cereals and potatoes, fish, and monounsaturated fats; little meat and milk or other dairy products; and only moderate alcohol.

Those women who followed between seven and nine of the diet’s elements lowered their risk of womb cancer by 57%, whereas those who stuck to six had a risk reduction of 46% and those on five 34%.

There was no significant benefit for women whose food consumption included fewer components, a finding the researchers suggest supports the hypothesis that the diet as a whole is a stronger factor in reducing womb cancer risk than any single element within it.

Cristina Bosetti, of the IRCCS-Instituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri in Milan, who was lead author of the study, said: “Our research shows the impact a healthy balanced diet could have on a woman’s risk of developing womb cancer.

“This adds more weight to our understanding of how our everyday choices, like what we eat and how active we are, affects our risk of cancer.”

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