Omega-3 fatty acids save lung cancer patient
Food Chemicals
Omega-3 fatty acids save lung cancer patient
By David Liu, Ph.D.
Nov 10, 2005, 11:31
Nutrient supplements help fight cancer even though the FDA may not want you to make any health claims, particularly when you want to sell nutrition supplements.
Gang Wu at the University of Nevada reported on Nov.8 that Ron Pardini, biochemistry professor of the Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station, helped save his neighbor known as “D.H.” with terminal lung cancer, who was bound to die of the disease five years ago.
When the 78 year-old D.H. was diagnosed with lung cancer, his doctor told him he had only a few months to live. “But five years later, he is still alive, and has even gained a little weight,” Dr. Pardini said.
What saved D.H. is not the conventional chemotherapy and surgery, but a nutritional intervention – drastically increasing the intake of omega-3 fatty acids that are widely found in fish oil or golden algae oil.
Today, CT scan results showed the cancer shrunk 10 percent.
Dr. Pardini is no quack doctor. His omega-3 fatty acids therapy is based on many of his previous quality studies of nude or athymic mice that showed omega-3 fatty acids significantly suppress a range of human mammary, ovarian, colon, prostate and pancreatic cancer cells, according to the story.
He also found that fish oil consumption improves a mouse’s responsiveness to chemotherapy.
Dr. Pardini’s research on the anticancer effect of fish oil was inspired by observations that Inuit Eskimo populations have less breast and prostate cancer deaths.
The case study was published in the recent issue of the Nutrition and Cancer journal. It is the first case study of human cancer patients recorded in the US. Animal models were commonly used in previous studies.
While high dose of fish oil and golden algae oil suppresses the growth of cancer, omega-6 fatty acid-rich food such as corn was excluded in D.H.’s diet as these fatty acids increase cancer growth.
“We have good evidence for employing nutritional interventions to improve cancer treatment and patient well-being,” the story quoted Dr. Pardini as saying.