Eating fatty fish may ward off kidney cancer in woman

Dining on fatty fish at least once a week lowered women's risk of renal cell carcinoma, but lean fish and the shrimp-lobster tribe offered no such benefit, found researchers here.

Photo: Eating fatty fish may ward off kidney cancer in woman

A preliminary study found that women who consumed one or more servings of fatty cold-water fish per week during an average of 15.3 years had a statistically significant 44% decreased risk of renal cell carcinoma compared with women who eschewed fish, according to a report in the Sept. 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association .

For a subset of women with consistent long-term consumption of fatty fish at baseline and 10 years later (one to three servings a month or more), the risk was down 74%, said Alicja Wolk, D.M. Sc., of the Karolinska Institute, and colleagues, reports MedPage Today.

According to Reuters, lean varieties such tuna, cod and fresh-water fish did not confer the same benefit.

Compared to lean fish, fatty fish have up to 30 times the amount of certain acids and up to five times the level of Vitamin D. The fatty acids have been reported to slow development of cancer and people with kidney cancer often have low levels of Vitamin D.

"The name fatty fish may frighten some people but this kind of fat is healthy so I would recommend to eat fatty fish, not lean, because you can get much more benefits," said Alicja Wolk of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

"Fatty fish per definition has also more calories but benefits are so overwhelming," she said.

The researchers, writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, did not indicate whether fatty fish might prevent other types of cancer.

"Women who consumed one or more servings of fatty fish per week had a statistically significant 44% decreased risk of renal cell carcinoma compared with women who did not consume any fish," study results say.

Fatty fish have much higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D than lean fish, and the frequent consumption of fatty fish may lower renal cell cancer risk as a result of a higher intake of eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaeneoic acid as well as vitamin D (all found in abundance in fish oils).

It is estimated that there kidney cancer will cause over 100,000 deaths worldwide, informs Toronto Daily Mews.