Fish oil recommended to fight cancer

Monday, Feb. 10, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

High-fat fish oil may be the newest medical wonder drug.

According to a University of Nevada, Reno study, fish oil fed to mice shrinks breast cancer tumors. It also increases responsiveness to chemotherapy while protecting against toxic effects and reduces cachexia -- the wasting syndrome often associated with cancer patients on chemotherapy.

"Contrary to what most doctors recommend, we come down on the side of high-fat fish oil," said Ron Pardini, biochemistry professor and associate director of UNR's Agricultural Experiment Station.

Pardini and doctoral student Yu Shao were the first to report on these positive effects of fish oil in medical journals.

"We urge cancer patients -- particularly those on chemotherapy -- to eat a diet rich in fish oil," Pardini said. "Actually, as insurance, we should all eat fish at least once a week."

But don't try to substitute other high-fat foods, because "it's not so much the amount but the kind of fat that's important," Pardini said.

When researchers fed mice high-fat fish oil, the tumors shrank and a third of the mice were cancer-free in 60 days. None died. They also responded better to chemotherapy, even at lower doses of fish oil, and did not lose weight or energy.

In results being published by Nutrition and Cancer magazine, fish oil even protected the mice from the toxic effects of a popular chemotherapy drug.

Mice fed with high-fat corn oil and then injected with chemo saw their tumors shrink, but some of them died as well.

This year in Nevada, nearly 1,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and about a quarter will die from the disease. The breast cancer incidence for Nevadans is highest among whites and lowest in Indians and Asians. This can be related with medical studies showing lower breast cancer rates among cultures whose fish consumption is greater.