Omega three derivatives are at the heart of eyesight and its maintenance. They are repair and maintenance building blocks.
A recent book I read on macular degeneration highly recommends omega three, on the form of fish oil.
We are seeing on this site more and more area where herceptin appears to be impacting - the nose - the joints.
There is also some indication that there might be some communality in that omega threes might act on HER2 - see post below.
I know it is complicated, and not easy reading. The simple fact is this is new ground. How high omega threes will react with herceptin does not appear to be known, although it does act in synergy with other agents.
I cannot give you any easy answers. I can only suggest that if you have not looked at balancing your omega threes and sixes and consider adding oily fish and or fish oil to your diet you will find the subject thought provoking.
RB
1: J Nutr. 2005 May;135(5):983-8. Related Articles, Links
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Dietary (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids inhibit HER-2/neu-induced breast cancer in mice independently of the PPARgamma ligand rosiglitazone.
Yee LD, Young DC, Rosol TJ, Vanbuskirk AM, Clinton SK.
Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
yee.52@osu.edu
Overexpression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2/neu) characterizes a molecular subtype of breast cancer associated with poor clinical outcome. Preventive strategies for HER-2/neu-positive breast cancer, which is often estrogen and progesterone receptor negative, remain undefined. Activators of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma), a nuclear hormone receptor also expressed in breast cancer, hold potential as cancer prevention agents. PPARgamma ligands include specific fatty acids and synthetic compounds, such as the thiazolidinediones, which appear to inhibit cell proliferation and tumorigenesis. We hypothesized that a thiazolidinedione, rosiglitazone, may serve as a chemopreventive agent for HER-2/neu-associated mammary carcinogenesis, but that efficacy may be influenced by dietary fat content. We studied the effects of diets enriched with corn or fish oil (25% of energy) with and without rosiglitazone (12 g/kg) in a 2 x 2 factorial design on mammary tumorigenesis in murine mammary tumor virus (MMTV)-HER-2/neu transgenic mice. Despite in vitro evidence of antiproliferative effects in an MMTV-HER-2/neu tumor cell line, rosiglitazone did not affect mammary carcinogenesis in vivo. Interestingly, fish oil-based diets markedly suppressed breast tumor incidence (57% of mice vs. 87% of corn oil-fed mice, P = 0.0001) as well as tumor multiplicity (P = 0.001) and mammary gland dysplasia (P = 0.001). These findings demonstrate a potent preventive effect of (n-3) PUFA on HER-2/neu-mediated mammary carcinogenesis, without interaction with a synthetic PPARgamma activator. Further studies focusing on the mechanisms by which (n-3) fatty acids suppress HER-2/neu signaling pathways involved in the pathogenesis of breast cancer are warranted.
PMID: 15867269 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]