Fish Oils and Breast Cancer

January 5, 2008

Hi folks:

Here is a paper showing pretty extraordinary results for the

influence of red blood cell fish oil content on breast cancer:

" Breast cancer risk and erythrocyte compositions of n-3 highly

unsaturated fatty acids in Japanese. "

Kuriki K, Hirose K, Wakai K, Matsuo K, Ito H, Suzuki T, Hiraki A,

Saito T, Iwata H, Tatematsu M, Tajima K.

Division of Epidemiology and Prevention, Aichi Cancer Center

Research Institute, 1-1 Kanokoden, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8681,

Japan.

" Dietary intake of fish rich in n-3 highly unsaturated fatty acids

(HUFAs), such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic

acid (DHA), has been proposed to decrease cancer risk. In contrast

to results from laboratory studies, however, protective effects for

breast cancer have proved equivocal in epidemiological studies.

" In the present case-control study, we examined associations between

breast cancer risk and fatty acid compositions in erythrocyte

membranes as biomarkers for those intakes. Dietary information and

blood samples were collected from 103 incident breast cancer cases

and 309 non-cancer controls (matched by age and season) and

erythrocyte fatty acids were measured using accelerated solvent

extraction and gas-liquid chromatography.

" Dietary intake of n-3 HUFAs demonstrated a negative association

with risk (the highest to the lowest tertile, odds ratio (OR), 0.51;

95% confidence interval (CI), 0.27-0.98; p(trend)<0.05), but there

was no association with those of saturated fatty acids (SFAs) and

meat. Moreover, risk was inversely associated with erythrocyte

compositions of EPA (OR, 0.27; 95% CI, 0.14-0.53; p(trend)<0.0001),

DHA (OR, 0.06; 95% CI, 0.02-0.16; p(trend)<0.0001) and n-3 HUFAs

(OR, 0.11; 95% CI, 0.05-0.24; p(trend)<0.0001), and positively with

that of SFAs (OR, 12.29; 95% CI, 4.94-30.57; p(trend)<0.0001) and

the ratio of SFAs/n-3 HUFAs (OR, 14.65; 95% CI, 5.67-37.82; p(trend)

<0.0001).

" In conclusion, we showed that erythrocyte compositions of specific

fatty acids derived from fish intake, as biomarkers, are associated

with lower risk of breast cancer, but further studies are needed to

investigate mechanisms linked to the etiology. "

PMID: 17354239

Rodney.

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