Fish oil builds muscle in cancer patients

William Atkins
Tuesday, 01 March 2011 23:39

Science - Health

A Canadian study has shown that taking fish oil while on chemotherapy treatments helps to maintain and even build much needed muscle mass in cancer patients. It helps with survival rates and improves quality of life.

The study was published online on February 15, 2011, in the journal Cancer under the title 'Supplementation with fish oil increases first-line chemotherapy efficacy in patients with advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer' (DOI: 10.1002/cncr.25933).

The participating cancer patients, 46 in all, had non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common type of lung cancer, according to PubMed Health of the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

Fifteen of them were given daily 2.2-gram supplements of fish oil (FO) for ten weeks, while the other 31 were given standard of care (SOC) treatment (without fish oil).

The group taking the fish oil was found to have better response rates and greater clinical benefit to the chemotherapy treatment than the group not taking fish oil.

The fish oil group either maintained muscle mass or added muscle mass, while the non-fish oil group either maintained muscle mass or lost muscle mass.

The loss of muscle mass in cancer patients is due primarily to the presence of inflammation. When inflammation is present, muscle mass deteriorates in cancer patients.

Page two concludes with results and conclusions from the study.