Fish oil could be a safe booster for breast cancer drug treatment, according to a findings presented at the annual meeting in Florida for the American Association for Cancer Research.
Omega-3 fatty acids, or fish body oils, lowered cancer severity when used with tamoxifen therapy for breast cancer treatment.
Tamoxifen is a drug that interferes with estrogen activity and reduces the risk for women of develop breast cancer.
Dr. Jose Russo, director of the Breast Cancer Research Laboratory at Fox Chase Cancer Center, studied rats induced with mammary tumors and divided them into four groups. The rats were either fed 17 percent fish oil, with or without tamoxifen, or 20 percent corn oil, with or without tamoxifen.
After eight weeks, fish oil reduced breast cancer risk more than corn oil but omega-3 fatty acids with tamoxifen had the best results.
"If a tumor was being treated with tamoxifen, Russo said in a statement, according to UPI, the addition of an omega-3 fatty acid diet seemed to make the tumor, at least at the molecular level, more benign and less aggressive and responsive to tamoxifen.
