In the breast cancer awareness month, a series of reports on breast cancer , pevention and treatment will be published for those who are interested.

Saturday Oct 5, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- A report in the journal Breast suggests that nutritional and lifestyle interventions such as reduced fat intake, weight loss, vitamin D as a dietary supplement and  moderate physical activity can reduce the risk of developing breast cancer and improve the outcome of the disease in patients.

R.T. Chlebowski, author of the report, from Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, CA reviewed previous studies and found reduced intake of dietary fat is associated with weight loss and reduced incidence of breast cancer. 

The author also says that it is unknown the risk reduction is due directly to the reduced intake of fat or weight loss induced by the reduced intake of fat.  In any case, consumers may only need to know that reduced fat intake helps prevent breast cancer and recurrence of the disease in women with early stage breast cancer.

Lower vitamin D as measured as 25-hydroxyvitamin D was associated with higher recurrence of breast cancer in women with early stage breast cancer, the author reported.

Another important factor is physical activity.  Moderate physical activity equivalent to 3 to 4 hours of walking per week has been associated with reduced early stage breast cancer incidence and recurrence.  

Weight loss has been associated with lower risk of breast cancer and lower risk of recurrence of the disease. But it is less known whether weight loss induced by any means can render the same protective effect against breast cancer.

In summary, there are many things that women can do to prevent breast cancer and reduce risk of mortality.  Weight loss induced by reduced intake of dietary fat, increased intake of vitamin D and moderate physical activity are three things women can do to help lower their risk.

An estimated 210,000 American women are diagnosed each year with breast cancer and about 40,000 of them are expected to die from the disease and implications each year in the United States.

In many cases, breast cancer is preventable.   An authoritative organization says that two things women can do to lower their risk for sure is to avoid hormone replacement therapy and medical radiation while many other things can be done potentially to help lower the risk as well. (DL)