Preserve Muscle and Improve Outcomes in GI Cancer Cachexia

How Fish Oil Can Help Preserve Muscle and Improve Outcomes in GI Cancer Cachexia

In this prospective study, Shirai and colleagues evaluated 128 gastrointestinal cancer patients with cancer cachexia (≥5% weight loss) undergoing systemic chemotherapy. They compared those receiving a fish oil (FO)-enriched oral nutritional supplement to those who did not, to see whether FO-enriched nutrition could improve inflammatory markers, body composition (especially skeletal muscle and lean body mass), chemotherapy tolerance, and overall survival.

Over the course of treatment, patients in the FO-enriched nutrition group maintained stable serum C-reactive protein (CRP) levels, while in the control group CRP levels rose significantly. More importantly, the FO-nutrition group showed significant increases in skeletal muscle mass and lean body mass, whereas the control group had no significant gains in these measures.

When they stratified patients by systemic inflammation status—using the modified Glasgow Prognostic Score of 1 or 2 (which identifies moderate to high inflammation)—those receiving FO-enriched nutrition within that subgroup had better chemotherapy tolerance (fewer interruptions or dose reductions) and significantly improved overall survival compared to similar patients without FO nutrition.

Altogether, this suggests that FO-enriched nutritional supplements given alongside chemotherapy may help counteract muscle wasting, dampen systemic inflammation, and improve outcomes—but especially in patients who already show signs of inflammation.

Reference:

Shirai Y, Okugawa Y, Hishida A, et al. Fish oil-enriched nutrition combined with systemic chemotherapy for gastrointestinal cancer patients with cancer cachexia. Sci Rep. 2017;7(1):4826. Published 2017 Jul 6