While a diagnosis of any cancer is not good news, people should know that only 17% of all men diagnosed with prostate cancer will die of prostate cancer. Many more men (in fact, the vast majority) will die with prostate cancer, without ever really knowing that they have the disease. Still, we know that there are certain prostate cancers that can be very aggressive. These more aggressive cancers are much more likely to occur in younger men and in African-American men. So, our recent development of a method for using a simple screening test that is very effective at identifying aggressive prostate cancers is really good news for men who have a prostate cancer that could kill them. Based on work that we published on a large screening trial funded by the National Cancer Institute, known as the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial and electronic records from the Veterans Administration, we were recently awarded United States Patent no. 10,042,977 for our āMethod Utilizing Repeat PSA Screening for Diagnosis of Virulent Prostate Cancer.ā
Of course, it is much better to actually prevent cancer than to be diagnosed with the disease, even at an early stage. So, we have even better news in terms of prostate cancer prevention. We have now published 7 studies showing that the inflammatory potential of the diet can determine whether or not a man actually gets prostate cancer in the first place. These studies, conducted in Argentina,4 Canada,5 France,6 Iran,7 Italy,8 Jamaica,9 and Mexico10 all indicate that lowering your Dietary Inflammatory Indexā¢ (DIIĀ®) score will reduce the probability of getting prostate cancer. Furthermore, we found in an Italian cohort that men already diagnosed with prostate cancer had a better chance of surviving if they ate a diet which is anti-inflammatory (had a low DIIĀ® score).11 This is strongly consistent with work that we conducted a number of years ago showing that we could reverse metastatic prostate cancer with a vegetarian diet characterized by low inflammatory potential.12
Now, if youāve been following our newsletter or blogs you will know that a strongly anti-inflammatory diet will have a low DIIĀ® score. The foods that contribute to a low score tend to be:
- Aromatic
- Flavorful / Tasty
- Naturally Colorful (i.e., not artificially colored)
- Nutrient-dense (i.e., have a lot of nutrients per unit weight or volume)
- Low-calorie (i.e., have few calories per unit weight or volume)
There is an abundant of foods that have these properties. The list below is a great place to start.
- Greens
- Tomatoes
- Carrots
- Berries
- Peaches
- Onions
- Avocado
- Watermelon
- Eggplant
- Asparagus
- Salmon
- Mango
- Kiwi
Spices also are uniformly anti-inflammatory and can be used in imaginative ways to enhance the flavor of mixed dishes ā everything from masala chai to casseroles, curries and stir fries.