Colon cancer therapy: new perspectives of nutritional manipulations using polyunsaturated fatty acids

Purpose of review Recent advances in the development of new therapeutic strategies combining conventional adjuvant radio/chemotherapy with nutritional manipulations with n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids ( PUFAs) are presented. Recent findings Studies in cell culture and tumour-bearing animals have reported the ability of long-chain n-3 PUFAs with 5-fluorouracil resulted in an additive growth inhibitory effect on different cell lines. Moreover, recent findings suggest that eicosapentaenoic or docosahexaenoic acid may be used to enhace tumour radiosensitivity while reducing mucosal/epidermal radiotoxicity similar to radioprotectiove agents. The underlying mechanisms is probably mediated through lipid peroxidation because the antitumour effect of n-3 PUFAs is by vitamin E. In vivo, the use of n-3 PUFAs may provide an additional advantage compared with n-6 PUFAs. Downregalulation of eicosanoid synthesis from cyclooxgenase ll may reduce angiogenesis, inflammation and metastasis induction. Summary New insigts suggest that n-3 PUFAs may play an important role not only in cancer prvention but also in cancer management. They may act synergistically with radio/chemotherapy to kill tumour cells by increasing oxidative stress while reducing angiogenesis, inflammation and metastasis induction.