 Out of 199 women asked to eat lots of fruit, vegetables, fish and olive oil in Italian trial, none suffered recurrence in three years 
 
 Eating a Mediterranean diet, rich in fruit, vegetables, fish and olive oil, may help prevent breast cancer returning, according to a study presented at a major international cancer conference. The study presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago is a trial in Italy which compared the outcomes for 307 women who had been treated for early breast cancer. The cancer researchers at Piacenza hospital, Italy, found that after three years, 11 women from the group eating a normal diet suffered a return of their breast cancer, while none of those eating a Mediterranean diet did. The results showed that during that time, 11 patients suffered cancer again who were following their normal diet, while no women in the Mediterranean diet group experienced a relapse. To contact Editor’s Note author Mitchell H. Katz, M.D., email mediarelations@jamanetwork.org 
 
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 JAMA Internal Medicine 
 
 Eating a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra virgin olive oil was associated with a relatively lower risk of breast cancer in a study of women in Spain, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine. "Lifestyle choices like eating a well-balanced diet, taking regular exercise and maintaining a healthy weight can all help reduce the risk of cancer coming back, but they can't prevent it completely," says Samia al Qadhi, chief executive of Breast Cancer Care. Professor Arnie Purushotham, Cancer Research UK's senior clinical adviser, said: "The preliminary results of this small study suggest that a Mediterranean diet could lower the risk of breast cancer returning, but we'd need much longer follow-up than three years to confirm the diet's impact. “Further studies with more women are needed to understand more about the impact that diet can have on breast cancer survival and the biological reasons behind this.” 
 
 Lady Delyth Morgan, the chief executive of Breast Cancer Now, said: “This study adds to increasingly interesting discussions about how lifestyle factors might influence breast cancer recurrence. Dr Erica Mayer, Asco's breast cancer expert, said: "The whole topic of lifestyle interventions for breast cancer survivors is a very important one. But she said studies to date have been conflicting and the latest study had some problems with its methodology.
– Women who've survived breast cancer and are looking to prevent a recurrence may be encouraged by news out of a major cancer conference: that adhering to a Mediterranean diet (lots of fruits, veggies, fish, and olive oil) may help fend off the disease's return, the Guardian reports. For their experiment, revealed at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting in Chicago, researchers at Piacenza Hospital in Italy studied two groups of women who had been treated for early breast cancer: 199 who ate Mediterranean-style (including an allowance for one alcoholic drink daily) and another 108 who ate what they usually did, but with healthy-eating input from a dietician. After three years of following these diets, none of the ladies who went Mediterranean suffered relapses, while 11 women from the other group did. Science World Report notes these results add onto the news from another, much larger recent JAMA study that found a Mediterranean diet rich in extra-virgin olive oil led to a 68% reduction in the risk of developing breast cancer. There are drawbacks to the new study—notably, the small sample size, the relatively short follow-up time of three years, and other methodology issues, critics say. "People were asked to participate in one diet or the other," the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's director of clinical research tells the Guardian. "There is no information about the activity level or change in weight which, for most of the lifestyle research, one needs to be aware of." And the CEO of UK charity Breast Cancer Care says that while any info about how to possibly keep breast cancer from coming back is a "welcome addition to our toolbox," there's no universal panacea. "Lifestyle choices like eating a well-balanced diet, [partaking in] regular exercise, and maintaining a healthy weight can all help reduce the risk of cancer coming back, but they can't prevent it completely," she notes, per the Independent. (America is slowly but surely moving toward a more Mediterranean way of eating.)