Could doctors one day prescribe a specific diet to prevent the spread of breast cancer?

Researcher Melanie Rutkowski, PhD, from University of Virginia can envision a day when doctors prescribe a specific diet to prevent the spread of breast cancer. A day when doctors could identify women at high risk for breast tumors just by examining the bacteria in their guts. And now Susan G. Komen has awarded her $450,000 to fund pioneering research that could make that happen. Over the next three years, the grant will let Rutkowski, of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, expand our understanding of the relationship between the microbiome – the microorganisms that naturally live in our bodies – and the immune system’s response to breast cancer. She will seek to determine if chronic disruption of the microbiome, possibly caused by diets heavy in processed foods, fats and sugar, is hurting the immune system’s ability to battle breast tumors – and perhaps even facilitating the cancer’s spread through the body.