Trinity College Dublin | Find Me A Cure

Omega-3 Fatty Acids Help Cancer Patients

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A randomised controlled trial has shown that omega-3 fatty acids given as part of an oral nutritional supplement helps preserve muscle mass in patients undergoing surgery for oesopahageal cancer, a procedure normally associated with significant weight loss and quality of life issues.

Omega 3 fats are essential fats found naturally in oily fish, with highest concentrations in salmon, herring, mackerel, and sardines. Considering their health-related benefits, food manufacturers have started to add them to foods like yogurt, milk, juice, eggs, and infant formula also.

Professor John V Reynolds of Trinity College Dublin and Dr Aoife Ryan of St James’ Hospital, the pair who led the trial, said that previous studies have had already shown that nutritional supplements containing one form of omega 3 fat, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), significantly reduced weight loss among inoperable cancer patients.

They revealed that that finding made them hypothesise that a nutritional supplement rich in calories and a high dose of EPA could stem the debilitating weight loss seen in patients following oesophageal surgery.

The researchers said that they chose to study patients undergoing surgery for oesophageal cancer because it is considered to be one of the most stressful and serious operations a patient can undergo.

“An increasing number of patients are treated with chemotherapy alone or in combination with radiation therapy before they undergo surgery. The surgery is a serious operation lasting several hours and can take weeks to recover from surgery and up to six months to recover pre-illness quality of life. Weight loss is extremely common both before and especially after this type of surgery, and any approach that can preserve weight, in particular muscle weight and strength, may represent a real advance,” they said.

During the study, patients awaiting oesophagectomy surgery were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. While both groups received a 240ml nutritional supplement twice daily starting five days before surgery, patients in the treatment group received an enriched formula with omega 3.

Immediately following surgery, the supplement was given through a feeding tube for 14 days while patients recovered in hospital. Once patients could resume oral feeding, they continued drinking the supplement until 21 days post surgery.

The researchers observed that the patients given the standard feed without omega 3 suffered clinically severe weight loss post surgery, while those in the omega 3 group patients maintained all aspects of their body composition. Professor John Reynolds said: “Omega 3 enriched nutrition appears to prevent loss of muscle mass by reducing the amount of inflammatory markers in the blood – this means the metabolism is not as stressed as it usually is post surgery. We also saw that the omega 3 group was less likely to have a fever in the first week post surgery which points to the ability of omega 3 to suppress inflammation. Looking at their blood tests omega 3 fed patients had much lower ‘inflammatory compounds’ circulating in their blood which points to the ability of omega 3 to reduce inflammation.”

The researchers said that using specialised nutritional feeds with a highly purified form of EPA enabled them to administer a dose of omega 3 that was much higher than that typically found in food. Professor John Reynolds said: “This study has provided an interesting insight into how nutritional therapy can positively impact on the major stress of cancer surgery. More studies need to be done, in particular to address whether such approaches lead to more rapid recovery of quality of life, reduce complications, and improve outcomes.”

He expressed his belief that similar benefits from Omega 3 enriched nutrition might accrue to patients needing complex surgical care for non-cancer problems, for instance liver transplantation or major cardiac surgery.

Sources: The Times Of India

Bacteria to Clean Arsenic Spills

Scientists have stumbled on a new bacteria that can clean up arsenic spills even in previously inhospitable terrains.

The Giant Mine in Canada is in the sub-arctic region. The presence of over 230,000 tonnes of arsenic-containing dust makes it one of the most polluted places on earth, as well as one of the most inhospitable.

“Water seeps through the mine cracks carrying the arsenic with it as it drips down the walls,” said Thomas Osborne of University College London. “We discovered new types of bacteria living in biofilms on the walls of Giant Mine that consume arsenic compounds contained in the polluted water seeping through.”

Arsenic is toxic to all living cells, and in people causes fatal cancers of the lung, liver, kidney and bladder. It also causes cirrhosis and gangrene, and on a wider scale seriously damages wildlife in fragile environments.

Arsenic contamination is a global problem, with parts of India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Mexico, Canada, Argentina and the US severely affected.

“Until now, no bacteria have ever been isolated that can thrive in cold temperatures and deal with arsenic contamination. The new bacteria we discovered function at temperatures between minus 20 degrees Celsius and four degrees C,” said Osborne.

“These bacteria also live in a community called a biofilm, which means that we can build them into a new system to clean up contaminated areas by removing the arsenic from soil or drinking water, even in the cold far north and south, or in winter.

“The other exciting possibility that this opens up is that we can isolate the enzyme from these new strains of bacteria and develop an arsenic biosensor to use in cold environments.

“This will warn when traces of arsenic are escaping from areas like mine workings, industrial chemical facilities, or even laboratories, alerting us before pollution manages to get into water courses or drinking water supplies. We could also use it to test newly drilled wells in countries like Bangladesh where water supplies are known to be contaminated.”

Many organisms, including all plants and animals, ultimately get their energy from the sun via photosynthesis. But over the last few decades scientists have discovered more and more microbes that can get their energy directly from breaking down chemical bonds.

This enables them to survive in extraordinary and dark environments such as deep inside the earth or at the bottom of the coldest, deepest oceans, where previously no life was expected to exist at all.

These findings were presented on Monday at the Society for General Microbiology‘s Autumn meeting being held this week at Trinity College, Dublin.

Sources: The Times Of India