THE MECHANISTIC RATIONALE IN SUPPORT OF DIETARY CANCER PREVENTION

Mechanistic studies are an essential component of dietary cancer preve ntion trials. In breast and prostate cancer, a low-fat diet with a red uction in omega-6 fatty acid may prove effective, not only because of related decreases in sex steroid hormones, but as a result of altered eicosanoid biosynthesis. An optimal approach to primary and secondary prevention is likely to be a dietary change combined with one or more pharmacologically based chemopreventive agents. Patients with in situ carcinoma of the breast or prostate are candidates for dietary interve ntion as a means of secondary prevention. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc .