Patients suffering from colon cancer may benefit from increasing their dairy intake, according to a new study.
According to the study's findings, participants who ate the most dairy lived slightly longer and had a lower risk of dying from any cause.
"If you are a colorectal cancer patient, calcium and milk consumption may improve your survival. But do not change your diet just yet before more research is conducted," said lead researcher Peter Campbell, who's with the American Cancer Society's epidemiology research program. The new study, he noted, showed only an association between dairy and survival -- it could not prove that dairy consumption was the direct cause of increased longevity.
"If our findings are replicated in future studies, we may see changes in dietary guidelines for cancer survivors: patients might be encouraged to increase calcium and milk intake," Campbell added.
However, Dr. Donald Abrams, an integrative oncologist at the University of California, San Francisco, and author of an accompanying journal editorial, had significant doubts about the study.
"It's silly to look at milk in isolation, because [according to the study] the people who drank the most milk also were the leanest, did the most physical exercise, ate less red meat, and ate more fruits and vegetables," he said. "The message is it's the whole diet, not a single component."
