Baylor. US: Recent studies suggest that nutrients found primarily in vegetables
and fruits can help lower the risk of prostate cancer and possibly slow
its development, and those diets higher in these foods and lower in fat
and meat may provide some protective benefit against the disease or its
progression.
A clinical study called MEAL (The Men's Eating and Living (MEAL) Study: A Randomized Trial of Diet to Alter Disease) is
assessing whether a diet-based intervention to increase vegetable and
fruit consumption can slow disease progression, and improve the quality
of life for men with low-grade prostate cancer who are under active
surveillance. Men are typically offered the option to undergo active
surveillance if they meet very specific criteria, including the presence
of a small low-grade tumor in their prostate. If there is a larger
tumor in the prostate and/or the disease is of higher grade, then these
men will likely be offered active treatment with surgery or radiation.
The active surveillance approach involves careful and close
monitoring, and can postpone the side effects of active treatment, or
even avoid those undesirable side effects. That is achieved by regular
prostate exams and blood tests, and periodic biopsies.
With this approach, active treatment is not begun until the disease
shows signs of growth or progression, and still allows the doctors and
their teams to treat the disease while it is still in an early curative
state.
Patients who enroll in the MEAL study are randomized either to a
group that receives telephone-based dietary counseling and structured
dietary education, or to a control group who receives a booklet on
nutrition, exercise, and prostate cancer, but no ongoing dietary
counseling.
Men randomized to the intervention group on the MEAL study will
receive structured, individualized, one-on-one counseling achieved via
half-hour telephone calls over a period of 24 months. The goal is to
help them change their dietary patterns and to incorporate at least
seven servings of vegetables and two servings of fruit daily.
"This study is the only open national clinical trial to assess a
dietary intervention in this population, and has the potential to
improve quality-of-life and the treatment of men with low-risk prostate
cancer." says Dr. Guilherme Godoy, assistant professor of urology and
the principal investigator of the study at Baylor College of Medicine.
This study is open nationally through cooperative groups, such as
CALGB and SWOG, and more information can be obtained at National Cancer
Institute (NCI) website ClinicalTrials.gov under the identifier:
NCT01238172.
Baylor College of Medicine is one of the sites in Houston where the
study is open. For more information or to participate in this clinical
trial, please contact Charleen Gonzalez at (713) 798-2179, or charleen.gonzalez@bcm.edu.