Fish Oil May Improve Chemotherapy Response in Lung Cancer Patients

If you've been diagnosed with lung cancer, I'm sure you've wondered what else could possibly be done to improve your survival. What about all those supplements displayed in the health food store? Is there anything that is "missing" that could be combined with conventional medicine that might make a difference?

A new study looked at fish oil (did your grandma ever try to spoon feed you cod liver oil?) combined with chemotherapy to see if it would make a difference. This was a pretty small study - only 46 people - but the results said yes. In those people with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who were given fish oil supplements along with chemotherapy, both the response rate to treatment and 1-year survival rate were higher.

Clearly something worth looking at. But when I see studies like this I like to look at it from different angles. After all, it is hard to prove cause and effect. I like to add seaweed to the soups I make and don't have lung cancer, but that doesn't mean that seaweed prevents lung cancer. So what do studies say that have looked at fish oil and lung cancer from another angle?

On a population basis, fish oil has received a positive vote for people with lung cancer. An earlier study in Norway found that women who consumed cod liver oil daily for a year before their diagnosis of lung cancer had a 44% lower chance of dying from the disease.

In mice, the use of fish oil supplements has been evaluated, and the mice given fish oil supplements had a lower risk of developing lung cancer in the first place. Fish oil may have a preventative role in lung cancer. That is at least - in mice.

Sometimes the benefits of a nutritional supplement are limited to only symptoms and quality of life, and may not make a difference in survival. One study looking at a nutritional approach using fish oil supplements in people with stage 3 lung cancer found that they did indeed improve nutritional status.

Of course it is important to note that the use of any supplements for people with lung cancer should be considered only in the setting of a careful discussion with your oncologist. What works for one person could be detrimental to another. And just because many of these supplements are called "natural" doesn't mean they are safe. Poison ivy is natural but...you get my drift. Yet it can't hurt to ask your oncologist her opinion of this recent study.

Further Reading:

• Alternative Treatments for Lung Cancer - What Works?

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Photo: istockphoto.com

_{Mernitz, H. et al. Fish oil supplementation inhibit NNK-induced lung carcinogenesis in the A/J mouse. Nutrition and Cancer. 2009. 61(5):663-9.}

_{Murphy, R. et al. Supplementation with fish oil increases first-line chemotherapy efficacy in patients with advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer. Cancer. 2011 Feb 15. (Epub ahead of print)>}

_{Skeie, G. et al. Cod liver oil, other dietary supplements and survival among cancer patients with solid tumours. International Journal of Cancer. 2009. 125(5):1155-60.}

_{van der Meij, M. et al. Oral nutritional supplements containing (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids affect the nutritional status of patients with stage III non-small cell lung cancer during multimodality treatment. Journal of Nutrition. 2010. 140(10):1774-80.}