A Life Extension Foundation online interim report titled Fish and Prostate Cancer Risk – Fact or Fiction points out a number of significant flaws in the study from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center linking Omega-3 fatty acids to prostate cancer.
What prompted LEF’s team of scientific researchers to post a rebuttal is “...the lack of rigour, as well as multiple layers of methodological problems and error notwithstanding the complete lack of consistency with the known, well-established biology and bio-chemistry of prostate cancer”.
The following are some of the fatal flaws in the study:
The conclusions run contrary to the results of previous studies specifically designed to determine the effect of fish and fish oil consumption in prostate cancer.
The subjects of the study may have already had prostate cancer because of pre-existing disease and/or genetic predispositions at baseline, meaning they had higher PSA scores and family history of prostate cancer. The study was based on a single blood test of plasma fatty acids. Associating a one-time plasma omega-3 reading with long-term prostate cancer risk simply does not make sense since plasma omega-3 changes rapidly with short-term dietary changes.
The subjects of the study do not appear to have taken fish oil supplements. LEF scientists repeatedly tried to contact the authors of the study but did not receive a response as to whether any attempt was made to ascertain the source in the study subjects’ blood.
A number of confounding risk factors might have influenced the outcome in the study despite attempts by the investigators to account for them. For instance, 53 per cent of the subjects with prostate cancer were smokers, 64 per cent regularly consumed alcohol, 30 per cent had at least one first-degree relative with prostate cancer, 80 per cent were overweight or obese.
It is important for readers to bear in mind that Fred Hutchinson Research Center is a leading recipient of National Cancer Institute funding as well as a recipient of pharmaceutical companies such as GlaxoSmithKline and Actinium Pharmaceuticals Inc.
The science behind the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids is so strong that Big Pharma has jumped on board with expensive fish oil prescription drugs.
The Hutchinson Centre study seems fishy to me.