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# Dietary fat affects outcome of breast cancer
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/dietary_fat_affects_outcome_of_breast_cancer_0925141052/
- Published: 2014-09-25T11:52:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T15:49:25.000Z
- Description: In mice given human breast cancer cells and treated with paclitaxel, a diet containing stearate cut lung metastasis by 50 percent compared with corn oil and low-fat diets, and reduced the number and size of metastatic nodules.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Cancer, Avoiding Illness, #vivvo-import

Thursday Sep 25, 2104 (foodconsumer.org) - A patient's diet, specifically, the dietary fat, may determine how effective a chemotherapy could stop breast cancer from developing an advanced disease, a new study suggests.

The study showed a diet with stearate can reduce the incidence of breast cancer metastasis to the lungs by 50% in mice inoculated with human breast cancer cells and receiving treatment with paclitaxel, compared to a diet with corn oil and a diet with low fat.

Stearate is a salt of stearic acid - a saturated fatty acid found high in animal fat like tallow (up to 30%). It is also high in cocoa butter and shea butter (28 to 45%). Because it is an saturated fatty acid, it is not subject to being oxidized and it will cause the production of harmful free radicals and increase the oxidative stress. Free radicals are risk factors for cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Corn oil contains high levels of omega 6 polyunsaturated fatty acids which are not as healthy as omega-3 fatty acids and other types of fatty acids such as monounsaturated fatty acids. Previous studies suggest that cancer patients may be better off avoiding corn oil, soybean oil and other oils with high omega-6 polyunsaturated fat.

The diet with stearate was also found to reduce the number and the size of metastatic nodules in the lungs, compared to the low fat diet. Both corn oil diet and stearate diet decreased the number of mice that had lung metastasis, compared to the low fat diet. 

It is unknown what types of fat was included in the low fat diet. It should be noted that both the amount and the type of a fat can determine its role in the development of a disease like cancer.

Both corn oil diet and the stearate diet decreased the number of lung metastases per mouse, but only the stearate diet had a significant effect, compared to the low fat diet.

The diet with stearate plus the chemotherapy reduced the risk of breast cancer metastasis by decreasing angiogenesis, compared to the low fat diet. 

The study concluded that a proper diet can help prevent or treat breast cancer.

Breast cancer in many cases can be prevented. The disease is expected to be diagnosed in more than 230,000 women each year in the United States and about 37,000 women die from the disease and its complications each year in the country. (David Liu, PHD)

Xiangmin Zhao, Gabriel Rezonzew, Dezhi Wang, Gene P. Siegal, Robert W. Hardy, Diet modulation is an effective complementary agent in preventing and treating breast cancer lung metastasis, Clinical & Experimental Metastasis, August 2014, Volume 31, Issue 6, pp 625-638