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ScienceDaily (Apr. 5, 2009) - Docosahexanoic acid (DHA), an omega-3 fatty acid found in fish oils, has been shown to reduce the size of tumours and enhance the positive effects of the chemotherapy drug cisplatin, while limiting its harmful side effects. The rat experiments provide some support for the plethora of health benefits often ascribed to omega-3 acids.

To the surprise of doctors around the world, melatonin is demonstrating life-saving benefits that far exceed its common use as a sleep aid.1 Increasingly, researchers have shown that melatonin's impressive ability to control oxidative damage in systems throughout the body can reduce the trauma of brain injury, prevent heart muscle damage, offer neuroprotection, increase cognitive functioning, and reduce the toxic effects of chemotherapy while enhancing its benefits.2-7 Cumulatively, these findings add up to important new roles for melatonin not only in disease prevention but in almost every field of medicine.

Mice injected with cancer cells experienced significantly elevated levels of C-reactive protein, white blood cells, and lipid peroxidation compared with control mice. These levels were reduced in animals that received cisplatin and/or DHA. While treatment with 125 mg/kg DHA inhibited tumor growth by 38 percent compared to untreated animals, 250 mg/kg suppressed tumor growth by 79 percent, which was a greater effect than that of cisplatin alone (which was associated with a 55 percent reduction). The combination of DHA and cisplatin resulted in an 81 percent inhibition of growth, while reducing elevated white blood cell levels (leukocytosis) to normal levels. Treatment with the higher dose of DHA alone was associated with a similar reduction in white blood cells, which, when elevated, are associated with tumor growth. A strong relationship was observed between tumor growth and white blood cell levels as well as C-reactive protein levels. In another experiment with rats treated with cisplatin, the addition of 250 mg/kg DHA prevented lethal kidney toxicity in 88 percent of the animals that received it, while none of the rats that received cisplatin alone survived.

Chemopreventive and renal protective effects for docosahexaenoic acid (DHA): implications of CRP and lipid peroxides. Elmesery ME, Algayyar MM, Salem HA, Darweish MM, El-Mowafy AM. Cell Div. 2009 Apr 2;4(1):6. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 19341447 doi:10.1186/1747-1028-4-6