fish oil supplements can reduce the effect of the chemo

[Olga]

It was posted by Bruce Shriver on the sarcoma mailing list:

Subject: New research suggests that fish fat can prevent chemotherapy drugs from doing their job

"Fish oil supplements, which contain omega-3 fatty acids thought to offer a
variety of health benefits, can be bad news for cancer patients. According
to a study
<http://www.cell.com/cancer-cell/abstrac ... %2900307-2>
published in Cancer Cell, fish oil can induce resistance to chemotherapy
drugs in cancerous cells. Emile Voest of the University Medical Centre
Utrecht and her colleagues found that blood stem cells from mice started
producing two fatty acids also found in fish oil, KHT and 16:4(n-3), which
somehow enabled tumor cells to evade treatment with the chemotherapy drug
cisplatin. Indeed, giving the mice off-the-shelf fish oil supplements had a
similar effect. Blocking the production of these fatty acids, on the other
hand, improved the effectiveness of the chemotherapy. "We show that the body
itself secretes protective substances into the blood that are powerful
enough to block the effect of chemotherapy," Voest
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14882108> told BBC News. "These substances
can be found in some types of fish oil. Whilst waiting for the results of
further research, we currently recommend that these products should not be
used whilst people are undergoing chemotherapy." The nutshell taken from
http://bit.ly/on2naT



Bruce

[Ivan]

Ouch. Another reason to always remember that supplements can do good, nothing, or be harmful. Consider the whole range of possibilities when you decide to take them.