Wednesday, February 10, 2010

DHA supplements may improve chemotherapy outcome

According to researchers in a new study published in the British Journal of Cancer, “our data show for the first time that a dietary intervention targeted on DHA is a feasible approach that has potential to substantially increase survival in metastatic breast cancer patients treated with chemotherapy.” The new study, if supported by additional research, suggests that the omega-3 DHA may help improve survival by sensitizing tumors to chemotherapy.

As part of their anthracycline-based chemotherapy (FEC) regimen, 25 women were given additional DHA (1.8 grams per day) for between 2 and 96 months. After an average of 31 months, researchers found that the overall survival of women was 22 months, and reached 34 months in women with the highest DHA levels in their blood. “Although the median time to progression (6 months) and overall survival (22 months) in our study were within the frame of published data, it should be stressed that our patient population had a particularly poor prognosis, as 68 per cent had liver metastases in addition to other sites of metastases,” stated the researchers. “The median overall survival of patients having liver metastases was reported to be 14 months.”

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