Diet modulates not only gastrointestinal cancer risk but also survivorship, providing an opportunity to improve cancer-related outcomes and quality of life through suitable dietary and lifestyle interventions in survivors of cancer. This Comment summarizes the evidence and ongoing trials investigating diet in gastrointestinal cancer survival, including potential underlying mechanisms and future research directions.
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Acknowledgements
F.C.M. and U.A.S. thank the TREC Training Workshop R25CA203650 (principal investigator: M. Irwin) for their support. U.A.S. was supported in part by a National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute (NIH/NCI) Cancer Center Support Grant (P30CA008748), an American Society of Hematology Scholar Award, and a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Academic Clinical Trials Grant during this work. M.M.S. was supported by the NCI of the NIH under award number K12 CA237806 from the Emory K12 Clinical Oncology Training Program. Additional support was provided by the Georgia CTSA ULI Program (grant number UL1 TR002378) and the Society of Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons Research Grant Award.
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U.A.S. reports research funding support from Celgene/BMS and Janssen to the institution; research support from Sabinsa Pharmaceuticals and M&M Labs to the institution; and personal fees from Janssen Biotech, Sanofi and i3Health outside the submitted work. M.M.S. is a proctor with Intuitive Surgical, Inc. F.C.M. declares no competing interests.
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Malcomson, F.C., Shah, M.M. & Shah, U.A. Food as medicine in gastrointestinal cancer therapy. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-025-01117-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-025-01117-0