Dietary Flavonoid Intake and Breast Cancer Survival
Having a family member currently dealing with cancer, I can attest from firsthand experience that the discussion of anything outside of chemotherapy and radiation that may positively effect outcome is never discussed. Given the dire consequences of not staying current on the medical literature when it comes to oncology, this is absolutely NOT an acceptable situation.
In this study alone, one of thousands finding protective effects of lifestyle, breast cancer patients with a higher intake of flavonoids had a better chance of survival. Specifically when comparing highest vs lowest intakes, flavones (found in certain spices, celery, citrus peels) showed 37% reduction in death, isoflavones (found in soy) showed a 48% reduction and anthocyanidins (found in berries) showed a 36% reduction. I find the isoflavone relationship interesting given that many oncologists tell their breast cancer patients to avoid soy. In this study of 1210 breast cancer patient isoflavones had a massive protective effect on the outcome.