Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Sep 15, 2015; 7(9): 128-131
Published online Sep 15, 2015. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v7.i9.128
Fish oils in parenteral nutrition: Why could these be important for gastrointestinal oncology?
Lynnette R Ferguson
Lynnette R Ferguson, ACSRC/Discipline of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, the University of Auckland, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
Author contributions: Ferguson LR conceived the issues which formed the content of the manuscript and wrote the manuscript.
Supported by Auckland Division, Cancer Society of New Zealand.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author has no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Lynnette R Ferguson, D Phil (Oxon), DSc, Professor of Nutrition, ACSRC/Discipline of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, the University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Wellesley St 1184, Auckland 1010, New Zealand. l.ferguson@auckland.ac.nz
Telephone: +64-9-9236372
Received: May 12, 2015
Peer-review started: May 18, 2015
First decision: June 18, 2015
Revised: July 6, 2015
Accepted: August 4, 2015
Article in press: August 7, 2015
Published online: September 15, 2015
Processing time: 128 Days and 7.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Parenteral nutrition formulae contain essential nutrients, in which the lipid component is often provided by a soy extract, containing essential fatty acids. Several trials have considered such formulas with added fish oils, high in the long chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, eicosapentanoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Such compounds have a range of biological functions, especially in reducing inflammatory symptoms. However, there has been variability among results of clinical trials, possibly caused by environmental contaminants in the fish, and/or lipid oxidation. It is suggested that pure DHA and EPA, but possibly not fish oils per se, would be beneficial.