Diets rich in fish oil cannot control tumor cell metastasis

Rats fed diets containing different amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids either of the n-3 or n-6 type, received cultured, syngeneic mammary tumor (BN472) cells intravenously. Animals were sacrificed 2 weeks after tumor inoculation, and the number of pulmonary tumor foci was counted. No significant differences in the number of metastatic foci were observed between the dietary groups. Prostaglandin measurements in the supernatant of tumor cells cultured in vitro showed that the tumor cells could produce thromboxane A₂. Many investigators connected this tumor synthesis capacity with tumor metastatic activity. Yet in our study, diets rich in menhaden oil, with the known capacity to inhibit thromboxane synthesis, could not control tumor metastasis in this particular tumor model.