Docosahexanoic acid (DHA), an omega-3 fatty acid found in fish oils, has been shown to reduce the size of tumors and enhance the positive effects of the chemotherapy drug cisplatin, while limiting its harmful side effects.
The rat experiments, described in BioMed Central's open access journal Cell Division, support the plethora of health benefits often ascribed to omega-3 acids.
Professor A. M. El-Mowafy led a team of researchers from Mansoura University, Egypt, who studied DHA's effects on solid tumors growing in mice, as well as investigating how this fatty acid interacts with cisplatin, a chemotherapy drug that is known to cause kidney damage.
"DHA elicited prominent chemopreventive effects on its own, and appreciably augmented those of cisplatin as well,” El-Mowafy said. “Furthermore, this study is the first to reveal that DHA can obliterate lethal cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity and renal tissue injury."
DHA is an omega-3 fatty acid commonly found in cold-water fish oil and some vegetable oils. It is a major component of brain gray matter and of the retina in most mammalian species, and it is considered essential for normal neurological and cellular developments.
The researchers found that, at the molecular level, DHA acts by reducing leukocytosis (white blood cell accumulation), systemic inflammation, and oxidative stress — all processes that have been linked with tumor growth.
El-Mowafy and his colleagues have called for greater deployment of omega-3 in the fight against cancer.
"Our results suggest a new, fruitful drug regimen in the management of solid tumors based on combining cisplatin, and possibly other chemotherapeutics, with DHA,” they write.
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