Eating lots of fish may not help prevent prostate cancer, but it may help patients reduce their risk of dying from the disease, a new review suggests.
Dr. Konrad M. Szymanski of McGill University Health Center in Montreal, coauthor of the study, and colleagues reviewed 17 case-control studies and 14 cohort studies and found no association between eating fish and incidence of prostate cancer.
But the researchers did find those who ate lots of fish were 44 percent less likely to develop metastatic prostate cancer or advanced or late stage prostate cancer. And higher fish consumption may cut the risk of death from this malignancy by up to 63 percent.
The findings were reported Sep 15, 2010 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The researchers speculated that the possible component(s) responsible for the reduction in the risk of prostate cancer mortality is fish oil with high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids - docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA).
In addition to prostate cancer, the omega-fatty acids found in fish oil namely, DHA and EPA, are also have a protective effect against lung cancer and breast cancer.
Prostate cancer is a common cancer in men. The disease is diagnosed in more than 200,000 men and kills about 35,000 each year in the United States, according to the National Cancer Institute.
In many cases, prostate cancer is not aggressive and does not require treatment, particularly in elderly people. A healthy lifestyle is believed to help reduce the risk of developing the disease.
By David Liu and editing by Rachel Stockton
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