Unsaturated Fatty Acids and Cancer

Abstract

Cancer is second only to heart disease as the leading cause of death in the UK. For certain groups of people, such as children and women aged between 30 and 54, it is the primary cause of death. A cancerous growth (tumour or neoplasm) is initiated either by a physical or chemical change to the DNA, or by the insertion into the genome of an appropriate DNA sequence from a retrovirus. The ultimate formation of a tumour after this initiation event depends on proliferation of the damaged cells under the influence of a tumour promoter. While some cancers can be traced back to a known carcinogen, the cause of most cancers is not known and attention has focused on dietary components as initiators or promoters of carcinogenesis (see British Nutrition Foundation, 1988).