Fish oil aids cancer treatment
With more Australians diagnosed with cancer, doctors are trying to find new ways to make treatments easier to tolerate.
They have found giving patients omega 3 or fish oil might help patients get through treatment with fewer side effects.
Scientists from Sydney’s Concord hospital wanted to know why some patients get side effects from chemo and not others.
They have found patients with advanced cancer have high levels of a substance which means the body can not metabolise drugs.
“For patients with those elevated inflammatory markers, they can’t clear the chemotherapy as well and get much more side effects from the treatment,” oncologist Professor Stephen Clarke said.
Scientists gave some patients fish oil or omega 3 capsules and found they could tolerate the treatment much better.
One of those patients was Michael Isles, who has had chemotherapy for 12 months for bowel cancer.
“I’ve still got my hair, I don’t have mouth ulcers and there are many other side effects that I haven’t had at all - I’m very lucky,” he said.
With thousands of Australians treated for cancer each year, the research will help identify those patients most at risk of side effects.
“If they experience less toxicity and not needing to go into hospital with side effects, it will improve their quality of life,” Professor Clarke said.
For more information, contact Concord Hospital Cancer Research Laboratory.
SOURCE: ABC News - Australia Ω