Fatty acid doesn’t have any effect on cancer risk in patients with a history of heart disease, a new study suggests. According to MedPage Today, researchers at the University of Paris found that patients receiving fish oil and B vitamins were no less likely to get cancer than patients who didn’t take any supplements.
Regardless of whether they take vitamins or fish oil, people with a history of cardiovascular disease tended to have a nonsignificant 15 to 17 percent higher risk of cancer and cancer-related death, researchers said.
“This study does not support dietary use of B vitamins or omega-3 fatty acids for cancer prevention,” said study leader Valentina Andreeva.
And not only did dietary supplements fail to decrease cancer risk, it actually seemed to influence adverse effects in women. MedPage Today reported that supplementation in women resulted in a threefold higher cancer incidence and a five-fold higher incidence of cancer-related death. However, this finding is still the subject of some speculation, Andreeva noted.
“The preliminary evidence of adverse effects among women necessitates confirmation before firm conclusions could be drawn,” she said.
To reach their conclusions, the team followed more than 2,000 patients between the ages of 45 and 80, who were randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups: people taking vitamins B6 and B12, people taking omega-3 fatty acids, people taking both, or people receiving a placebo. After five years, cancer incidence and cancer mortality were recorded. Overall, 174 study participants had developed cancer.
The result was not statistically significant, researchers said. However, when accounting for sex, women did have a statistically significant higher hazard ratio of 3.02 for cancer incidence and 5.49 for cancer mortality.
