A MODERATELY HIGH PROTEIN DIET IS AS EFFECTIVE DURING NEOADJUVANT CHEMOTHERAPY AS IT IS 2 YEARS AFTER BREAST CANCER SURGERY – A PILOT TRIAL

. Statistically, patients who achieve and maintain their optimal weight during breast cancer treatment have the best prognostic. Breast cancer associated weight gain starts during neoadjuvant chemotherapy when many patients either eat too little because of the decreased appetite or eat too much to emotionally cope with the treatment. Materials and method. To test if we can prevent weight gain during neoadjuvant chemotherapy we assigned 46 patients during neoadjuvant chemotherapy (CH) and of 50 patients 2 years after surgery (S) to follow a moderately high protein diet – based on eating only when hungry foods naturally high in protein, high quality fatty acids and carbohydrates, calcium, pre- and probiotics. We used no dietary supplements. We measured weight (W), subcutaneous fat (%SF) and visceral fat percentages (% VF) with a multi-frequency BIA scale at the beginning of the study and after 12 weeks of intervention (time needed to administrate 4 chemotherapy sessions). To validate BIA measurements, we also measured waist and hips circumferences. Results. Although S patients obtained better results on all measured parameters, CH patients also improved their body composition despite chemotherapy administration during the trial: 1.611±2.89%kg (p=0.005), 1.79±3.32% subcutaneous fat (p=0.006), 0.4±0,81% visceral fat (p=0.012) and had a 0.29±0.4 in the waist to hips ratio (p=0.001). Conclusion. A moderately lower carb diet is as effective for preventing sarcopenic obesity during chemotherapy as it is 2 years after surgery thus sarcopenic obesity prevention can begin from as early as diagnosis.