Omega 3 Fatty Acids Suppress Cancer Cachexia in Patients with Pancreatic Cancer

The pancreas is an oblong flattened gland in the digestive and endocrine system located in the abdomen. By secreting pancreatic juice to the small intestine, the pancreas helps to break down carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids.


Traditional Chinese medicine views the pancreas, as a vital organ responsible for the absorption of foods' qi and nutrients before passing them to other organs to nourish our body.


More precisely, the functions of the pancreas including
* Production of enzymes digest fat, protein, and
carbohydrates.

* production of juices combined with juices from the intestines helps to do the job of breaking down protein, carbohydrates, and fat, therefore, it plays an important role in maintaining good health.

* Production of insulin, which is important in regulating the amount of sugar or glucose in the blood.

Pancreatic cancer is a chronic condition characterized by cell growth irregularly in the tissues of the pancreas.

According to statistics, every year, approximately, over 55,000 adults in the United States are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, accounting for 3% of all cancers and 7% of all cancer deaths.

The survival rate of pancreatic cancer even diagnosed early is very low compared to other types of cancer. The 5-year survival rate at stage IA pancreatic cancer is only14%.

Researchers do not know what causes pancreatic cancer. They don't even know why people with the same health conditions in the same family, are susceptible to pancreatic cancer, while others do not.

The most common risk factors of pancreatic cancer are similar to those of common cancers, including age, family history, gender, ethnicity, smoking, being overweight or obese, and certain medical conditions such as diabetes.

Cancer cachexia is a condition a multifactorial syndrome associated with an ongoing loss of skeletal muscle mass.

Omega-3 fatty acids are phytochemicals in the class of lipids, found abundantly in deepsea fisk, dark-green leafy vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, etc.


The three main components of Omega-3 fatty acids are alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).

On finding a potential phytochemical for the treatment of cancer, researchers examined the effects of omega-3 fatty acids in patients with pancreatic and bile duct cancer.

According to the administration of Racol®, an enteral nutrient formulated with omega-3 fatty acids to patients with unresectable pancreatic and bile duct cancer at 4 and 8 weeks after, pre-administration and administration showed a strong activity that increases skeletal muscle mass at both 4 and 8 weeks.


In other words, Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation protects the skeletal muscle mass associated with cancer cachexia in patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer and may improve cancer.


Taken altogether, Omega-3 fatty acids found abundantly in fish oil and plant oil may be considered a functional food for the reduction of cancer cachexia in patients with pancreatic cancer, pending the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

Intake of Omega-3 fatty acids in the form of supplements should be taken with extreme care to prevent overdose and acute liver toxicity.


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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Omega-3 Fatty Acids Prevent Early Pancreatic Carcinogenesis via Repression of the AKT Pathway by Ding Y1, Mullapudi B2, Torres C3, Mascariñas E4,5, Mancinelli G6, Diaz AM7, McKinney R8, Barron M9, Schultz M10,11, Heiferman M12, Wojtanek M13, Adrian K14, DeCant B15,16, Rao S17, Ouellette M18, Tsao MS19, Bentrem DJ20, Grippo PJ. (PubMed)
(2) Effects of ω-3 Fatty Acid Supplementation in Patients with Bile Duct or Pancreatic Cancer Undergoing Chemotherapy by Abe K1, Uwagawa T2, Haruki K2, Takano Y2, Onda S2, Sakamoto T2, Gocho T2, Yanaga K. (PubMed)