How might DHA help in human breast cancer?
Women with breast cancer have lower levels of DHA in their breast tissue compared to healthy women. This finding led Dr. M. Noguchi of the Kanazawa University Hospital in Japan to examine the effects DHA and EPA had on cell cultures of human breast cancer. These cancerous cells are grown in a dish in a laboratory, where researchers can carefully measure what biochemicals they are secreting. Such knowledge helps the scientists discover how these cells respond to other chemicals (such as DHA) in a controlled environment and elucidate their biochemical mechanisms. The researchers added DHA and EPA separately into the cancer cell cultures and observed that in both cases, the cells secreted much less prostaglandin E and leukotriene B, biochemicals which are involved in telling the cell to proliferate. As a result, the cancer cells’ growth was suppressed. Hence, DHA and EPA directly and definitely affect cancer cells, and while the exact mechanism is still being worked out, their use in trea
