Battling Breast Cancer Through Diet

Jan. 18, 2001 -- Since 1987, British geologist Jane Plant has faced breast cancer five times, and after her last bout, it had spread to her lymph system and she was told she had three months to live.

But she has been cancer-free for seven years. And Plant believes it is because she stopped eating dairy products. She tells the story in her new book, Your Life in Your Hands: Understanding, Preventing and Overcoming Breast Cancer.

Plant, who is one of the world's top geologists, said she used her scientific training to establish a link between breast cancer and eating dairy products. Though she advocates taking advantage of traditional treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy, Plant believes her no-dairy diet plan, which is rich in organically grown fruits and vegetables, can be a vital ally in the battle against breast cancer.

Dr. Susan Love, a professor of surgery at UCLA, said that though it is an interesting theory, she has seen no science to back it up. Clinching the link between diet and breast cancer would require doing a study on animals, then people, she said.

"It's important to give women this information, but you also need to tell them this hasn't been proven, and they shouldn't try it in lieu of something else," Love said. "But it certainly won't hurt you. We should certainly study it further."

Plant's Story Plant was doing research at a gold mine in Canada when she first discovered the cancer that she would spend the next six years fighting. After a hot, sweaty day in the field, Plant was undressing in her hotel when she saw the lump, and said she immediately thought it was cancer.

When she received her diagnosis in 1987, Plant, who was then 42, relied on conventional wisdom and treatments, including radiotherapy treatments, chemotherapy and even the removal of her left breast. But in 1993, when an egg-sized tumor surfaced in her neck, it was the fifth time cancer had appeared, and she started researching breast cancer on her own.

After she explored breast cancer rates in countries all over the world, she found that rural China had significantly lower rates of breast cancer. While one woman in 11 is affected in the UK, and one woman in nine in the United States, only one in 10,000 is affected in China.

Exploring the Differences Oddly, when she was first diagnosed with cancer, she had also noted that there were women of various ages, shapes and builds, but no Asian women in the breast cancer clinic.

That bit of information about the low rates in China prompted Plant to do a study of nutritional differences between the two nations. She remembered that the Chinese do not eat dairy products, and that helped lead Plant to link Western diets with high dairy consumption and high rates of breast cancer, she said.

To test her theory, she eliminated all dairy intake, including meat from dairy animals from her diet. In six weeks, her egg-sized tumor disappeared. Her body has remained cancer-free for seven years.

Love, however, notes that it might not be the Asian diet that did it, but rather other lifestyle factors that were not taken into account.

Dump All Dairy Products Plant believes one reason milk and dairy products might be a culprit in the development of the disease is that hormones and hormone-like substances in milk are known to make human breast cancer cells rapidly multiply.

She theorizes that these substances might cause cells to multiply incorrectly and cause cancer. One of these chemicals is insulin growth factor IGF-1, which causes cells to divide and reproduce. It is active in humans especially during puberty, and it stimulates breast tissue to grow.

Milk also contains small amounts of the hormone estrogen, which has been one of the main risk factors in breast cancer, and the chemical prolactin, which has been confirmed in studies to promote the growth of prostate cancer, she says.

For what she calls her anti-cancer diet, Plant says that meat, eggs and fish are all fine to eat. She says it is best to roast your meat, whether it is pork, lamb, venison or rabbit. But she recommends that you dump all your dairy products, even skim milk, cheese, and lowfat yogurt. To get calcium that helps women fight osteoporosis, Plant suggests organic soy substitutes, such as soy milk, ice cream and yogurts, vegetables (broccoli, collard greens, carrots, artichokes, fennel, etc.), fruits (raspberries, oranges, kiwi, figs, etc.), almonds and tofu.