Fish and fish oils - reduced risk of prostate cancer using better blood test

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Jim Marshall (not a doctor) said ...

This paper showed a reduced risk of prostate cancer from dietary fish oils.

 

As it was done in 1999 (before widespread use of fish oil capsules) we can expect that the dietary fish oils were largely obtained from fish.

 

This paper is useful in the wider debate for those who are looking at components of fatty acids in the blood because it uses a better indicator of long term use than some blood tests used in other papers.

 

... end Jim

 

Br J Cancer. 1999 Dec;81(7):1238-42.

Prostate cancer risk and consumption of fish oils: a dietary biomarker-based case-control study.

Norrish AE, Skeaff CM, Arribas GL, Sharpe SJ, Jackson RT.

Source

Department of Community Health, University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Abstract

Experimental studies suggest that the risk of prostate cancer is reduced with the intake of long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids derived from marine foods, such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). However, few human studies have been conducted due to difficulties in assessing the dietary intake of these fatty acids. The authors examined the relationship between prostate cancer risk and EPA and DHA in erythrocyte biomarkers in a population-based case-control study in Auckland, New Zealand during 1996-1997 involving 317 prostate cancer cases and 480 age-matched community controls. Reduced prostate cancer risk was associated with high erythrocyte phosphatidylcholine levels of EPA (multivariate relative risk = 0.59; 95% confidence interval 0.37-0.95, upper vs lowest quartile) and DHA (multivariate relative risk = 0.62; 95% confidence interval 0.39-0.98, upper vs lowest quartile). These analyses support evidence from in vitro experiments for a reduced risk of prostate cancer associated with dietary fish oils, possibly acting via inhibition of arachidonic acid-derived eicosanoid biosynthesis.

PMID: 1058488

Full article free:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2374335/pdf/81-6690835a.pdf

 

This extract can be found on http://PubMed.com, and is in the public domain.

On PubMed.com there will be a link to the full paper (often $30, sometimes free).

 

Any highlighting (except the title) is not by the author, but by Jim Marshall.

Jim is not a doctor.