Adherence to a low-fat diet for at least eight years reduces the risk of developing ovarian cancer among postmenopausal women by 40%, according to results from the NIH-sponsored Women's Health Initiative Dietary Modification Trail published online Tuesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the AP/Google.com reports. According to the American Cancer Society, about 22,400 women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year and about 15,200 will die from the disease.

For the study, Ross Prentice of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and colleagues tracked nearly 40,000 women ages 50 to 79, some of whom were assigned to reduce the amount of fat in their diets from an average of 35% to 20%, while others maintained their normal diets (Neergaard, AP/Google.com, 10/9). The study found that after the first four years of the study, the two groups had similar cancer rates; however, after the next four years of the study, the intervention group had a rate of 0.38 cases of ovarian cancer per 1,000 women annually, compared with a rate of 0.64 cases per 1,000 women in the control group (Brown, Reuters Health, 10/9).

The study also found that women in the intervention group had a 9% lower risk of developing breast cancer, but the finding was not large enough to be statistically significant. According to the AP/Google.com, some researchers have theorized that high fat intake increases the amount of estrogen in the blood, which could play a role in the development of ovarian and breast cancer. The study found that women in the intervention group had an average 15% reduction in estradiol, a form of estrogen, while the control group had no change. Women in the study who cut their fat intake the most experienced the greatest reduction in breast and ovarian cancer risk, according to the study (AP/Google.com, 10/9).

"The take-home message for the practicing clinician is that encouraging postmenopausal female patients to undertake a change to a low-fat diet likely will reduce ovarian cancer risk and may also reduce the risk of breast cancer and total invasive cancer," Prentice said (Reuters Health, 10/9).

An abstract of the study is available online.

Most Women Unaware of WHI Results, Survey Says
Most women are unaware of the results from WHI studies that have found significant health risks associated with long-term hormone replacement therapy, according to a recently released survey, HealthDay/Washington Post reports (Doheny, HealthDay/Washington Post, 10/10).

NIH researchers in July 2002 ended the WHI study on combination HRT three years early because they determined that the treatment might increase the risk for heart disease, invasive breast cancer and other health problems. A later WHI analysis, published in the April 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that HRT use among women in their 50s does not increase their risk for heart attack (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 9/17).

For the survey, Randall Stafford, associate professor of medicine at Stanford University's Prevention Research Center, and colleagues interviewed 781 women ages 40 to 60 to determine if they knew about the study, including 252 premenopausal women, 88 perimenopausal women and 227 women who were menopausal or postmenopausal. The researchers asked: "Have you heard or read anything about the results of the Women's Health Initiative, a major research study in the U.S. suggesting the health risks of taking hormone therapy outweigh the benefits for most women?"

The survey found that only 29% knew of the study. In addition, 40% answered more questions about the risks of HRT use correctly than incorrectly, and 64% knew that hormones were thought to increase the risk of breast cancer. About 36% of women who were aware of the WHI findings had talked with their doctors about HRT, and 15% of women who did not know about the study results discussed HRT with their physicians, the survey found.

"The unanswered question is: How many women who need to know the information now do not have it?" William Parker -- a gynecologist and former chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and the Orthopedic Hospital who was not a part of the survey -- said. He added that if a woman is not at the point where she has to make a decision about HRT, it would not jeopardize her care if she did not know of the study and its results (HealthDay/Washington Post, 10/10).