Tests on mice have shown that cutting their calorie intake by 30 per cent helps them to recover from one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer.
Women having radiotherapy will now be put on a weight loss plan to see if it helps survival rates, as part of a trial.
The average patient having treatment for breast cancer puts on 10lb in the first year because of steroids and hormone therapy, which makes standard treatments less effective, according to recent studies.
The journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment said that tests on mice showed that the triple negative subtype of breast cancer — one of the most aggressive — was less likely to spread when they were on a restricted diet.
Researchers at