A whole-food, plant-based dietary intervention and cognitive function in women with metastatic breast cancer.

Abstract

e24160 Background: Disease-specific quality of life (QOL) is consistently regarded as one of the most important outcomes by women with metastatic breast cancer (mBC), and it predicts survival. Treatment-related symptoms such as cognitive impairment greatly impact QOL in women with mBC. Patients undergoing treatment for breast cancer are highly interested in diet and nutrition, but despite this high level of interest, very few trials have tested dietary interventions in women receiving systemic breast cancer therapy and; the majority of research has been conducted in survivors who have completed primary treatment. Given the limited treatment options for cognitive impairment we evaluated whether our results show a whole food plant based (WFPB) dietary intervention might improve perceived cognitive function (CF) in women undergoing treatment for metastatic breast cancer. Methods: Patients with stage 4 breast cancer receiving treatment were randomized 2:1 into 2 arms: 1) WFPB diet (n = 20) or 2) usual care (n = 10) for 8 weeks with assessments at baseline, and 8 weeks. Our WFPB diet consisted of an ad libitum whole-food, plant-based diet; 3 meals/day were provided, which included fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts/seeds and excluded meat, dairy, eggs, added oils, solid fats and most sugars. Patient reported outcomes for perceived CF were collected using FACT- COG and EORTC-QLQ-C30. Paired t-tests were used to assess within group changes from baseline to week 8. The between group difference (WFPB diet vs control) was assessed by ANCOVA model. Results: Patients on the WFPB diet began with a mean baseline score of 140.8 on the FACT-COG which significantly improved to 156.6 (p = 0.005) at 8-weeks post intervention. The reported minimally important difference (MID) between groups is (9.6) and we observed a clinically significant difference of 17.1 (p = 0.03). Similar results in CF were observed for EORTC-QLQ-C30. The baseline mean score of 73.3 was improved to 84.7 (p = 0.004) at 8-weeks post intervention. The reported MID between groups is (4) and we observed a clinically significant difference of 12.6 (p = 0.07), with no significant changes in perceived CF for the control group. Conclusions: Our 8-week WFPB diet resulted in clinically meaningful and statistically significant improvements in perceived cognitive function in women with metastatic breast cancer. A phase 3 clinical trial is needed to confirm the results of this novel intervention. Funding: 3UG1CA189961. Clinical trial information: NCT03045289 .[Table: see text]