A landmark Italian study reveals that cancer survivors adhering to a Mediterranean diet experience significantly reduced mortality risks, particularly from cardiovascular causes.
 |
The Mediterranean diet, long celebrated for its health benefits, has now been shown to offer substantial advantages even after a cancer diagnosis. New research from Italy demonstrates that individuals with a history of cancer who closely follow this dietary pattern have a markedly improved survival rate compared to those who do not.
The study
The groundbreaking research, conducted as part of the UMBERTO Project, was a collaborative effort between the Joint Research Platform Umberto Veronesi Foun- dation and the Department of Epidemiology and Prevention at the I.R.C.C.S. Neuromed of Pozzilli, in partnership with the LUM “Giuseppe Degennaro” University of Casamassima.
Published in JACC CardioOncology[1], the study examined 800 Italian adults who had been diagnosed with cancer prior to their enrolment in the Molisani Study between 2005 and 2010. Participants, including both men and women, were followed for over 13 years. Detailed dietary information for the year preceding enrolment was available for all subjects.
Key findings
The results were striking. Individuals who reported high adherence to a Mediterranean diet in the year before joining the study demonstrated a 32% lower risk of mortality compared to those who did not follow the diet. Perhaps most notably, the benefit was particularly pronounced for cardiovascular mortality, which saw a remarkable 60% reduction.
Marialaura Bonaccio, first author of the study and Co-Principal Investigator of the Joint Research Platform at the Department of Epidemiology and Prevention of the IRCCS Neuromed, commented on the significance of these findings: “The beneficial role of the Mediterranean Diet in primary prevention of some tumours is well known in the literature. However, little is known about the potential benefits that this dietary model can have for those who have already received a cancer diagnosis”.
Implications for cancer survivors
With the number of cancer survivors expected to rise in coming years, potentially due to increasingly targeted and effective therapies, understanding the impact of diet on long-term survival becomes crucial.
The study’s results suggest that adopting a Mediterranean diet could be a powerful intervention for improving outcomes in cancer survivors. This dietary pattern, rich in fruits, vegetables, olive oil, and other plant-based foods, may offer protective effects that extend beyond cancer prevention to post-diagnosis care.
Molecular mechanisms and the ‘common soil’ hypothesis
The research also lends support to an intriguing hypothesis about the shared origins of chronic diseases. Maria Benedetta Donati, Principal Investigator of the Joint Platform, explained: “These data support an interesting hypothesis that different chronic diseases, such as tumours and heart diseases, actually share the same molecular mechanisms. This is known in the literature as ‘common soil’, namely a common ground from which these two groups of disorders originate.”
The role of antioxidants
Chiara Tonelli, President of the Scientific Committee of the Umberto Veronesi Foundation, highlighted the potential mechanisms behind the observed benefits: “The Mediterranean Diet is mostly composed of foods such as fruit, vegetables and olive oil, that are natural sources of antioxidant compounds, which could explain the advantage observed in terms of mortality not only from cancer, but also from cardiovascular diseases, that can be reduced by diets particularly rich in these bioactive compounds”.
The UMBERTO Project aims to further examine the relationship between nutrition and cancer, with a particular focus on the Mediterranean diet.
Conclusion
This research provides compelling evidence for the potential of the Mediterranean diet to improve outcomes for cancer survivors. As the population of cancer survivors grows, incorporating evidence-based dietary recommendations into survivorship care plans could become an increasingly important aspect of oncology practice.
Reference:
- Bonaccio, M., et al. (2024). Mediterranean diet Is associated with lower all-cause and cardiovascular mortality among long-term cancer survivors.
JACC CardioOncology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccao.2024.05.012
