ABSTRACT
Dietary recommendations and interim guidelines for reducing cancer risk in the general population have been published by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Cancer Institute, and the American Cancer Society. Recommendations addressed to the general population, attention is also focusing on the potential value of dietary intervention in patients who are either at high risk of a specific cancer because of a pre-existing disease or family history, or who have already developed a clinically manifest cancer. The chapter discusses the issues a critical fashion and describes some working criteria for the inclusion of patients in clinical trials of a low-fat diet. Women at high risk of breast cancer because of fibrocystic disease with epithelial atypia might also derive benefit, but the situation is more complex because these patients are frequently premenopausal and the role of obesity and dietary fat are unclear.
