NEW HAVEN — Eating nuts may help survivors of colon cancer prevent the disease from recurring, according to a Yale Cancer Center study.
The clinical trial followed 826 people who had suffered stage 3 colon cancer for an average of 6.5 years after surgery and chemotherapy, according to a Yale press release. It found that those who ate at least two 1-ounce servings of tree nuts each week were 46 percent less likely to have the cancer return and had a 57 percent reduction in mortality, regardless of cause.
When peanuts — which are legumes, not nuts — were included in the findings, patients had a 42 percent better chance of avoiding a recurrence of colon cancer.
A previous study that Fuchs helped lead, published in 2013 in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that “people who ate nuts regularly had a lower rate of mortality” from any disease.
Earlier studies also have linked consumption of nuts with reducing insulin resistance, according to the release. Insulin breaks down sugar in the blood and when the body becomes insulin-resistant, it can lead to diabetes.
A previous analysis of the same group of patients found that coffee also appears to reduce recurrence and mortality in colon cancer survivors.
Fuchs said that when he talks to patients, “first and foremost I talk about avoiding obesity, exercising regularly, and staying away from a high-carbohydrate diet. Then we talk about things like coffee and nuts. If you like coffee or nuts, enjoy them, and if you don’t, there are many other helpful steps you can take.
The findings were published Wednesday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Other authors were Dr. Jeffrey Meyerhardt of Dana-Farber and Dr. Ying Bao of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
