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Health News Archive 650 - Prostate Cancer
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Increasing Omega-3 to Omega-6 Ratio Reduces Prostate Cancer Risk

Increasing anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acid levels, and decreasing pro-inflammatory levels of omega-6, could reduce the risk of prostate cancer risk in individuals with a genetic predisposition to cancer, based on results from a recent animal study.

"This study clearly shows that diet can tip the balance toward a good or a bad outcome," said senior researcher Yong Chen from Wake Forest University School of Medicine. "It's possible that a change in diet could mean the difference between dying from the disease and surviving with it."

Over half a million news cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed every year world wide, and the cancer is the direct cause of over 200,000 deaths. More worryingly, the incidence of the disease is increasing with a rise of 1.7 percent over 15 years.

The new research, published in the July issue of Journal of Clinical Investigation, used mice engineered with a genetic defect that caused prostate cancer - Pten-knock-out mice. The Pten gene - a tumor suppressor gene - results in the spontaneous development of prostate cancer. The Pten gene is reportedly absent in 60 to 70 percent of metastatic cancers in humans

From birth the mice were randomly assigned to eat one of three diets with differing omega-6 to omega-3 ratios - one to one (high omega-3), 20 to one (low omega-3), or 40 to one (high omega-6). Omega-3 fatty acids are found in flaxseed, fish oil and krill oil.

Lead author Isabelle Berquin and co-workers report that mice with the tumor suppressor gene did not develop tumors and had 100 percent survival, regardless of diet. In mice with the gene defect, on the other hand, survival was 60 percent in animals on the high omega-3 diet, 10 percent in those on the low omega-3 diet and 0 percent in those on the high omega-6 diet.

"This suggests that if you have good genes, it may not matter too much what you eat," said Chen, a professor of cancer biology. "But if you have a gene that makes you susceptible to prostate cancer, your diet can tip the balance. Our data demonstrate the importance of gene-diet interactions, and that genetic cancer risk can be modified favorable by omega-3 PUFA."

"Clinically, prostate cancer is usually diagnosed in men age 60 or older, and cancer cells proliferate slowly. Therefore, dietary and/or chemoprevention are of particular importance for the management of prostate cancer. Our data imply a beneficial effect of omega-3 PUFAs on delaying the onset of human prostate," she added.

Previously, researchers from other groups have proposed the role of metabolites of omega-3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and the omega-6 acid, arachidonic acid as playing a important role in carcinogenesis. These three fatty acids compete to be converted by cyclooxgenase enzymes (COX-1 and COX-2) into prostaglandins, which can become either pro-inflammatory and increase tumor growth, or anti-inflammatory and reduce growth.

Source: I.M. Berquin, Y. Min, R. Wu, J. Wu, D. Perry, J.M. Cline, M.J. Thomas, T. Thornburg, G. Kulik, A. Smith, I.J. Edwards, R.D'Agostino Jr., H. Zhang, J.X. Kang, Y.Q. Modulation of prostate cancer genetic risk by omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Chen. Journal of Clinical Investigation July 2007, doi:10.1172/JCI31494

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