STUDENT: Ashley Paranich

PROJECT ADVISOR: Michael M. Evans

ABSTRACT

Impact of Vegetarian Diet on Cancer Remission
Background:By the year 2020, the suspected number of new cases of cancer are projected to increase by one million per year. There is research on the benefits of following specific diets that can help prevent disease, prolong life after disease, and even reverse the disease process in addition to other interventions. The implementation of a vegetarian diet along with other medical interventions could prove to be very useful in decreasing signs and symptoms of cancer, thus, speeding the rate at which a patient goes into remission, and ultimately decreasing the cost for patients with cancer.
Purpose:
The purpose of this research is to determine if excluding meat products from diet is of any benefit to the cancer patient along with standard treatment.
Methods:
After examining several articles from CINAHL and Google Scholar, four articles were chosen for relevancy and currency to be included in this research study. The keywords used to retrieve documents included a combination of: cancer, remission, native, vegetarian, plant-based, diet, and gut microbiome.
Results:
All four of the studies chosen showed possible evidence that vegetarian diets are a successful cancer therapy.
Conclusions:
Vegetarian diets can be helpful to patients suffering from cancer before diagnosis, while living with the disease, with or without other medical treatment, and after successful recovery. The diet can be followed to varying degrees, however there is evidence for success in cancer remission, possible prevention, also an increased chance of survival after remission.