What happens to essential fatty acids in cancer and during chemotherapy treatment

Cachexia, a multifactorial wasting syndrome that involves the loss of muscle and fat despite adequate nutritional intake, often results in patients having a reduced quality of life, a poor response to treatment and a decreased survival time. Patients with lung and colorectal cancer are frequently affected by malnutrition and abnormalities in lipid metabolism may reduce availability of n-6 and n-3 fatty acids and exacerbate the cachectic condition.Essential fatty acids were unexpectedly higher in patients with advanced cancer compared to healthy subjects. A fish oil diet maintained levels of essential fatty acids in rats treated with chemotherapy. This work is important in understanding fatty acid metabolism during the cancer trajectory and in defining points of potential intervention in patients with advanced cancer.We determined the total amount of plasma phospholipids as well as the amount of n-6 and n-3 fatty acids in plasma phospholipids of patients with advanced lung and colorectal cancer. In addition we determined the fatty acid composition and the amount of phospholipids and triglycerides in liver and plasma of rats that were injected with a colorectal tumor and treated with the chemotherapy drug Irinotecan.