Participants Needed for Study of Flaxseed and Cancer Risk

Flaxseed is a food that is particularly rich in chemicals called Phytoestrogens. These chemicals act like other estrogens in a woman’s body but in a manner that does not promote cancer. In general, we have found that these particular Phytoestrogens can actually fight cancer in a lot of different ways.

We have opened a study to help us find out how these particular compounds in food work in fighting cancer. If we can understand how certain foods affect hormones in a woman’s body this could allow us to design diets that will be particularly useful in changing the hormones in a beneficial way.

Who is Eligible?
We are looking for healthy postmenopausal Caucasian and African-American women between the ages of 45 and 75 who have never had cancer and are not on a special diet to participate in the study.

Most of the science to-date is based on studies involving Caucasian women. For this reason, we are particularly interested in recruiting African-American women for the study so that we can learn about both groups. African-American women tend to be diagnosed earlier than Caucasian women and their disease tends to be more aggressive resulting in generally poorer outcomes.

What is Involved?
Study participants will be asked to eat about 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed each day for six weeks and complete interviews about their health, medical history and lifestyle habits. They’ll be asked to visit Roswell Park five times over the course of several months and provide blood, urine and stool samples.

Participants will receive a $25 gift card each time they come to Roswell Park to provide samples. Free parking will be available, and they will also receive a nutrient analysis summary and body-fat report upon their completion of the study.

Learn more about this clinical research study here or call 1-800-ROSWELL (1-800-767-9355).