Fish Oil: Helping Modern Medicine Treat Breast Cancer

10.28.05 | Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS

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By Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS, October 19, 2005, abstracted from “Anticancer properties of propofol-docosahexaenoate and propofol-eicosapentaenoate on breast cancer cells” in the June 7, 2005 issue of Breast Cancer Research

 

Despite increases in technology, research, and education, breast cancer incidence in the U.S. has increased from one in twenty people in 1960 to one in eight today, with a woman being diagnosed every three minutes. In addition to the 216,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer expected to be diagnosed in 2004, 59,390 new cases of non-invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed, both expected to claim the lives of 40,000 women.¹ Invasive cancer spreads to other areas of the body, but non-invasive cancer does not.

 

Fortunately, research has begun to uncover several possible causes of breast cancer.  Obesity² and low physical activity³ have been associated with increased breast cancer risk.  And since both are associated with elevated fasting insulin levels,^{(4, 5)} this added credibility to another study⁶ finding that decreased insulin levels help decrease breast cancer risk. “Fasting insulin levels” are insulin levels taken first thing in the morning after waking.

 

Now a new study⁷ has found a simple supplement to help modern medicine treat breast cancer: fish oil.

 

Perhaps no other foodstuff in the past decade has received as much favorable press as fish oil.  In addition to helping fight the inflammation that leads to heart disease,⁸ stroke,⁹ and atherosclerosis,¹⁰ many researchers think that fish oil may also stave off the inflammation that contributes to type 2 diabetes,¹¹ arthritis,¹² Alzheimer¹³ and Parkinson disease.¹⁴  The evidence for the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids has been so compelling that the FDA issued a health claim for omega-3 fatty acids for heart disease in November of 2003.¹⁵

 

In the study, researchers found that fish oil, when combined with propofol, the most commonly used anesthetic in medicine today that also contains antioxidant properties,¹⁶ decreased breast cancer cell spread by 50% as well as increasing death of breast cancer cells by 40%.

 

Although they did not give the amount of fish oil used in this study that could be applicable for supplementation, the researchers concluded that the combination of fish oil with propofol “may be useful for the treatment of breast cancer.”

 

Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Danville, CA.  You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at mailto:ChiroDocPSUalum@msn.com or visiting his website www.CompleteChiropracticHealthcare.com

 

Reference:

¹  “About Breast Cancer: Statistics, Causes, Symptoms, Surgery Options” from BreastCancer.org www.breastcancer.org/press_cancer_facts.html#nci

²  Calle EE.  Overweight, obesity, and mortality from cancer in a prospectively studied cohort of U.S. adults. N Engl J Med 348:1625-1638, 2003

³  McTiernan A, Cooperberg C, White E, et al: Recreational physical activity and the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women. JAMA 290:1331-1337, 2003

⁴  Walker M: Obesity, insulin resistance, and its link to non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Metabolism 44:18-20, 1995 (suppl 3)

⁵  Duncan GE.  Exercise training, without weight loss, increases insulin sensitivity and postheparin plasma lipase activity in previously sedentary adults. Diabetes Care 26:557-562, 2003

⁶  Chlebowski, R. T., M. Pettinger, et al. (2004). "Insulin, physical activity, andcaloric intake in postmenopausal women: breast cancer implications." J Clin Oncol 22(22): 4507-13

⁷  Siddiqui, R. A.(2005). "Anticancer properties of propofol-docosahexaenoate and propofol-eicosapentaenoate on breast cancer cells." Breast Cancer Res 7(5): R645-54

⁸  Harper, C.R.  Beyond the Mediterranean diet: the role of omega-3 Fatty acids in the prevention of coronary heart disease. Prev Cardiol, 2003. 6(3): p. 136-46

⁹  Iso, H., et al., Intake of fish and omega-3 fatty acids and risk of stroke in women. Jama, 2001. 285(3): p. 304-12

¹⁰  Bhatnagar, D. and P.N. Durrington, Omega-3 fatty acids: their role in the prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis related risk factors and complications. Int J Clin Pract, 2003. 57(4): p. 305-14

¹¹  Finegood, D.T. Obesity, inflammation and type II diabetes. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 2003; 27: Suppl 3: S4-5

¹²  Sturmer, T., H. Brenner, et al. Severity and extent of osteoarthritis and low grade systemic inflammation as assessed by high sensitivity C reactive protein. Ann Rheum Dis 2004; 63(2): 200-5

¹³  Potter, H., I. M. The inflammation-induced pathological chaperones ACT and apo-E are necessary catalysts of Alzheimer amyloid formation. Neurobiol Aging 2001; 22(6): 923-30

¹⁴  McGeer, P.L. and E.G. McGeer, Inflammation and neurodegeneration in Parkinson's disease. Parkinsonism Relat Disord, 2004. 10 Suppl 1: p. S3-7

¹⁵  “Letter Responding to Health Claim Petition dated November 3, 2003: Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Reduced Risk of Coronary Heart Disease” from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Website: www.cfsan.fda.gov

¹⁶  Ogata, M., K. Shin-Ya, et al. (2005). "Antioxidant activity of propofol and related monomeric and dimeric compounds." Chem Pharm Bull (Tokyo) 53(3): 344-6

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Could you provide the original article link please? Thanks.