Omega 3 and Breast Cancer

Omega-3 fatty acids and breast cancer

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK. Dr. William Cave, MD of the University of Rochester School of Medicine presents an overview of the current knowledge regarding the relationship between dietary intake of essential fatty acids and breast cancer. Dr. Cave reviews the experimental evidence (mostly based on animal tests) supporting the contention that omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids promote tumor formation while omega-3 acids retard tumor development. A particularly interesting observation is the finding that rats fed a diet containing 20% coconut oil, butter or tallow had half the number of breast tumors than did rats fed a diet containing equivalent amounts of cottonseed oil, sunflower seed oil or corn oil (all high in omega-6 content). However, when as little as 3% of the coconut oil was replaced by sunflower seed oil the number of tumors increased to equal that obtained with 20% sunflower seed oil alone. This indicates that there is a certain, fairly low, level of omega-6 fatty acids which will lead to increased tumor formation irrespective of the composition of the rest of the diet. Animal experiments have also shown that fish oils are highly effective in preventing the development and progression of breast tumors and can diminish the metastatic spread of breast cancer. Dr. Cave concludes that changes in dietary fat composition can significantly affect breast cancer development and suggests the differences in eisosanoid metabolism induced by the two essential fatty acid families (omega-3 and omega-6) may be an important factor.Cave, William T., Jr. Dietary omega-3 polyunsaturated fats and breast cancer. Nutrition (Supplement), Vol. 12, No. 1, 1996, pp. S39-S42