EATING a diet with lots of healthy fats can help fight off cancer, a study suggests.
The Mediterranean diet emphasizes olive oil, nuts and fish as well as fruits, vegetables and wholegrains.
It has been linked to a host of health benefits, including cardiovascular diseases, and a longer lifespan.
Now researchers have shown it can also boost the effectiveness of immunotherapy among patients with skin cancer.
Patients who followed the diet and received the drugs were more likely to survive and progression-free after 12 months.
Study author and dietician Laura Bolte, from the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands, said: ‘Our study supports a role for dietary strategies to improve patient outcomes and survival.’
Researchers from the UK and the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands tracked the diets of 91 patients with advanced melanoma, who were taking Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors (ICIs).
The drugs have worked particularly well for people with melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer.
Those eating a Mediterranean diet not only responded better to the drugs, but were most likely to have not got any worse a year later.
The study also found that wholegrains and legumes in particular lessened the likelihood of suffering side-effects from the immunotherapy drugs, such as colitis – inflammation of the colon.
By contrast, people who consumed lots of red and processed meat suffered more side effects.
Professor Bolte said: ‘The relationship of ICI response with diet and the gut microbiome opens a promising and exciting future to enhance treatment responses.
The findings will be presented at the United European Gastroenterology Week 2022.