The American journal of clinical nutrition
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Randomized controlled trial of dietary fiber for the prevention of radiation-induced gastrointestinal toxicity during pelvic radiotherapy.
Background: Therapeutic radiotherapy is an important treatment of pelvic cancers. Historically, low-fiber diets have been recommended despite a lack of evidence and potentially beneficial mechanisms of fiber. Objective: This randomized controlled trial compared low-, habitual-, and high-fiber diets for the prevention of gastrointestinal toxicity in patients undergoing pelvic radiotherapy. ⋯ Conclusions: Dietary advice to follow a high-fiber diet during pelvic radiotherapy resulted in reduced gastrointestinal toxicity both acutely and at 1 y compared with habitual-fiber intake. Restrictive, non-evidence-based advice to reduce fiber intake in this setting should be abandoned. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT 01170299.