Los Angeles: Increasing the amount of omega-3 fatty acids and reducing omega 6 fatty acides could slow the progression of prostate cancer, according to a new study by the UCLA School of Medicine.

In the study, published in Clinical Cancer Research, mice were implanted with human prostate cancer cells and then divided into two group. One group, fed on a typical Western diet with an omega 6 to omega 3 ratio of 15 to 1, while the intervention group was fed the fatty acids in ratio of 1 to 1.

The cancer cells in the intervention group grew 22 per cent slow than the others. In addition the rate of growth in tumours, the final size and PSA levels were all lower

Senior author, Dr Willian J Aronson said that the study showed that altering the fatty acid ratio found in the typical Western diet to include more omega-3 fatty acids and decreasing the amount of omega-6 fatty acids reduced prostate cancer tumor growth rates and PSA levels in mice. He said more research was needed before any clinical recommendations could be made for human.