Guidelines for increased vegetable consumption asa way to improve to improve outcomes for prostate cancer survivors are based on expert opinion, inference, and statistical correlation, but a recent randomized clinical trial that included 478 patients found no difference in prostate cancer progression over two years among men with early-stage disease.
The Men’s Eating and Living (MEAL) enrolled 478 men aged 50 to 80 years with biopsy-proven prostate adenocarcinoma, stage cT2a or less, and serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level less than 10 ng/mL from January 2011 to August 2015; 24-month follow-up occurred from January 2013 to August 2017. 237 men participated in a counseling program that encouraged consumption of leafy green, carotenoid, and cruciferous vegetables compared with controls. The control group (n = 241) received written information about diet and prostate cancer.
The primary outcome was time to progression, defined as PSA level of 10 ng/mL or greater, PSA doubling time of less than 3 years, or upgrading on follow-up prostate biopsy. There were 245 progression events; control was 121, counseling program was 124, with no significant differences in time to progression.
doi:10.1001/jama.2019.20207
Citation: Parsons JK, Zahrieh D, Mohler JL, et al. Effect of a Behavioral Intervention to Increase Vegetable Consumption on Cancer Progression Among Men With Early-Stage Prostate Cancer: The MEAL Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2020;323(2):140–148. doi:10.1001/jama.2019.20207
