Grant: Operating Grant

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among Canadian women. In 2008, it was estimated that 22,400 women would be diagnosed with beast cancer and 5,300 would die from it. All of these women would be offered and most receive treatment. Long chain polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids, found in fatty fish from cold water, have been shown to decrease breast cancer growth in laboratory animals and human cancer cells in culture (e.g. in petri dishes). Recently, studies from our group have suggested that omega-3 fatty acids can improve the ability of chemotherapy drugs to kill breast cancer cells. Our studies indicate that omega-3 fatty acids kill cancer cells using some of the same death signals that chemotherapy drugs use. We are proposing that treating breast cancer cells with omega-3 fatty acids will improve the effectiveness of most of the current breast cancer chemotherapy drugs. We will test this idea by growing human breast cancer cells grown in culture and determining if the signals used by omega-3 fats to kill cancer are the same as the signals used by chemotherapy drugs. Then, breast cancer cells will be treated with different doses of omega-3 fatty acids prior to chemotherapy drugs, to determine if the combination of omega-3 fats and chemotherapy kills cancer cells better than chemotherapy alone. Our studies will help us to understand if this simple diet treatment will improve drug effectiveness, offering a significant benefit to breast cancer patients.