According to a U. S. study, healthy diet lowers the risk of breast cancer returning, by almost a third. Eating lots of fruit, vegetables and little fat can be beneficial.

San Diego team from the University of California found that healthy diet can reduce the chance of the cancer returning by 31%. Lead researcher Ellen Gold of the University of California Davis, said, "Women with early stage breast cancer who have hot flashes, have better survival and lower recurrence rates than women who don't."

The study involved 3,000 women who were randomly assigned a healthier diet with five portions of fruit and vegetables a day between 1995 and 2000. Researchers found that those on the intervention diet had lower rate of a second breast cancer event by 16%. Of those who did not follow the guidelines 23% had the cancer recur. Researcher said that women who had been through the menopause, lowered their risk by 47% if they followed a healthy diet regime.

The study is published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. "It appears that a dietary pattern, high in fruits, vegetables and fiber, which has been shown to reduce circulating estrogen levels, may only be important among women with circulating estrogen levels above a certain threshold," said John Pierce of the University of California San Diego.