Marine {omega}-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid intake and survival after colorectal cancer diagnosis
Experimental evidence supports an antineoplastic activity of marine -3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (-3 PUFAs; including eicosapentaenoic acid, docosahexaenoic acid and docosapentaenoic acid). However, the influence of -3 PUFAs on colorectal cancer (CRC) survival is unknown.
Within the Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study, we prospectively studied CRC-specific and overall mortality in a cohort of 1659 patients with CRC according to intake of marine -3 PUFAs and its change after diagnosis.
Higher intake of marine -3 PUFAs after CRC diagnosis was associated with lower risk of CRC-specific mortality (p for trend=0.03). Compared with patients who consumed <0.10 g/day of marine -3 PUFAs, those consuming at least 0.30 g/day had an adjusted HR for CRC-specific mortality of 0.59 (95% CI 0.35 to 1.01). Patients who increased their marine -3 PUFA intake by at least 0.15 g/day after diagnosis had an HR of 0.30 (95% CI 0.14 to 0.64, p for trend <0.001) for CRC deaths, compared with those who did not change or changed their intake by <0.02 g/day. No association was found between postdiagnostic marine -3 PUFA intake and all-cause mortality (p for trend=0.47).
High marine -3 PUFA intake after CRC diagnosis is associated with lower risk of CRC-specific mortality. Increasing consumption of marine -3 PUFAs after diagnosis may confer additional benefits to patients with CRC.
Publisher URL: http://gut.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/66/10/1790
DOI: 10.1136/gutjnl-2016-311990
Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.
Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.