The fiber forecast.

Can dietary fiber intake help predict colon cancer survival? We already know the data on initiating daily aspirin as a potential secondary prevention. But what patients with a cancer of the colon really what to know is: what about diet? Professional organizations have long recommended dietary fiber as prophylaxis against the development of colon cancer, which makes senses given it decreases transit time of potential ingested carcinogens. Now we have actual patient data from a large prospective cohort demonstrating a correlation between increased dietary fiber (per questionnaire) and improved survival among colon cancer survivors. This means fiber can add another bullet to its CV--below the heading colon cancer, right under the existing primary prevention blurb. That’s great for fiber, but why do we care? As oncologists, we are in the somewhat unique position of having patients eagerly inquire about lifestyle choices that can help them proactively prevent recurrences. And this helps keep our data-driven diet recs regular.