Mouse Model Reveals Link Between Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Prostate Cancer

A recent study established a link between the level of omega-3 fatty acids in the diet and the development and progression of prostate cancer.

Investigators at Wake Forest University School of Medicine (Winston-Salem, NC, USA) worked with a line of mice that had been genetically engineered to lack the Pten tumor-suppressor gene, a gene that is missing in 60-70% of metastatic tumors in humans. The engineered mice spontaneously developed prostate cancer and served as a model for the human disease.

The engineered mice and a control group possessing functional Pten were fed either a diet high in omega-3 (ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 was 1:1), a diet low in omega 3 (ratio omega-6 to omega-3 was 20:1), or a diet high in omega-6 (ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 was 40:1). Survival rates were compared and the animals' prostate glands were weighed to measure tumor progression.

Results published in the June 21, 2007, online edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation revealed that over the course of the experiment, none of the control animals developed cancer while all the genetically engineered mice developed prostate tumors. By the end of the experiment, 60% of the animals on the high omega-3 diet had survived, 10% on the low omega-3 diet were alive, but none of the animals on the high omega-6 diet had survived.

When the enzyme omega-3 desaturase, which converts omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids, was introduced into the Pten-knockout mice, tumor growth was reduced similarly to the omega-3 diet.

"This suggests that if you have good genes, it may not matter too much what you eat,” said senior author Dr. Yong Q. Chen, professor of cancer biology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, "but if you have a gene that makes you susceptible to prostate cancer, your diet can tip the balance. Our data demonstrate the importance of gene-diet interactions, and that genetic cancer risk can be modified favorably by omega-3. This study clearly shows that diet can tip the balance toward a good or a bad outcome. It is possible that a change in diet could mean the difference between dying from the disease and surviving with it.”


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Wake Forest University School of Medicine