Fish Oil supplements along with a low fat diet help fight prostate cancer

Fish Oil supplements along with a low fat diet help fight prostate cancer

Professor William Aronson and his team at UCLA have found that “in men with prostate cancer, you really are what you eat”. In a previous study in 2011 performed in men soon to have their prostates surgically removed to treat their prostate cancer, Dr Aronson’s team found that a low-fat diet accompanied by Fish Oil capsules over the course of four to six weeks slowed the growth of the cancerous cells compared to men on a typical Western diet.

In the new study Dr Aronson looked at cell cycle progression (CCP). But first some background; Prostate cancer is now the most common cancer in men in the developed world. Many men have indolent cancer (slow growing and not aggressive) that can be safely followed without immediate treatment, whereas others have an aggressive cancer and benefit from immediate intervention. Prostate cancer is highly variable and it is difficult to predict its behavior or the level of risk to the patient. Accurate prediction of disease behavior is critical because radical treatment (especially if used when not needed) is associated with high morbidity (lots of complications, side effects and toxicity). The problems associated with an uncertain prognosis have been exacerbated by the introduction of PSA testing in some countries, leading to an increase in reported incidence of cancer but having at most a small effect on mortality rates and autopsy reports indicate a very high prevalence of asymptomatic prostate cancer in 70-year-old men dying from other causes indicating that intensive screening increases the detection of indolent disease.

Clinical variables including Gleason score, tumor stage, and PSA concentration have been used at the time of diagnosis to predict disease outcome. However, predictions based on these variables are far from perfect, leading to considerable uncertainty among physicians and patients about the best course for initial treatment.

Recently scientists have examined the activity of 31 genes related to prostate cancer and have shown that the level of activity of these genes indicates survival in men with prostate cancer. The activity of these genes is called the CCP (Cell Cycle Progression). In a recent study published in Lancet Oncology results showed that a cell cycle progression (CCP) score added a substantial amount of prognostic information regarding death from prostate cancer in a cohort of men with clinically localized disease diagnosed by transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) and managed conservatively. Similar results were also seen for biochemical progression in men who were treated by radical prostatectomy. A very recent paper in the British Journal of Cancer shows that the CCP score is clinically relevant. In this study, the researchers report on the ability of the CCP score to predict death from prostate cancer, when measured in needle biopsy material, in a cohort of men with clinically localized disease diagnosed by a needle biopsy and managed conservatively.

In their new study, Dr Aronson and his UCLA team looked at the effects of a low fat diet and Fish Oil Capsules in relation to CCP scoring. The supplement plus diet reduced inflammation; inflammation stokes prostate cancer growth. It also lowered the CCP score. This finding is important because lowering the CP score indicates that they are helping prevent the prostate cancer from becoming aggressive and dangerous. “CCP scores were significantly lower in the prostate cancer in the men who consumed the low-fat fish oil diet as compared to men who followed a higher fat Western diet,” Aronson said. “We also found that men on the low-fat fish oil diet had reduced levels of pro-inflammatory substances that have been associated with cancer.”

The new findings also revealed that men on the low-fat fish oil supplemented diet were able to change the composition of their cell membranes in both healthy cells and prostate cancer cells – with an increased level of omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil capsule and decreased levels of more pro-inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids in the cell membranes.

The study results are published in Cancer Prevention Research, published online ahead of print on October 29^th, 2013.

For details on or evidence for CCP Scoring click on the hyperlinks below;
http://www.nature.com/bjc/journal/v106/n6/full/bjc201239a.html#bib6
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(10)70295-3/fulltext