The good oil for chemo patients
By Sheryl Taylor
National Nine News medical reporter
To look at him, you’d never know Michael Isles is into his fifteenth cycle of chemotherapy for colon and liver cancer.
“I’ve still got my hair I haven’t had any mouth ulcers and there are many other side effects that I haven’t been affected by at all,” he says.
“I’m very lucky.”
But it’s more than luck: researchers at Sydney’s Concord Hospital have discovered the fish oil capsules Mr Isles takes daily have coincidentally also been preventing toxic side effects from his chemo.
The Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids in fish oil settles down a vicious inflammatory cycle caused by cancers.
This inflammation interferes with the liver’s ability to breakdown chemotherapy drugs; so excess chemo medication can make patients nauseated and malnourished.
“They can be hospitalised and sometimes experience fatal complications of chemotherapy,” says Stephen Clarke, from Concord Hospital.
One in three Australians will develop a cancer some time in their life, and 25 percent will suffer toxic side effects of chemotherapy. The discovery of a marker test to identify this vulnerable group will significantly improve their outlook and enable them to carry on a normal quality of life, Professor Clarke says.
Michael had started taking fish oil four years ago to protect his heart, before he developed cancer, and now he’s still reaping the benefits .
“I’m just continuing with good health: cancer’s a side effect!”
SOURCE: National Nine News Australia Ω