These simple foods show promise against cancer 🍣

Marine lipids show promise against cancer. Some, such as omega-3 fatty acids found in foods like oily fish, might act preventively. Others serve as inspiration for developing therapeutic molecules.


Marine environments represent an extensive, untapped diversity of flora and fauna, creating a strong potential for discovering new molecules for therapeutic purposes. Notably, it contains molecules that have shown significant anticancer potential.

Examples include cytarabine, inspired by molecules from a Caribbean sponge (Cryptotethya crypta), used to treat certain forms of leukemia, and lipids of marine origin like miltefosine, which is indicated for the treatment of breast cancer skin metastases.

The marine environment is a major source of lipids (commonly called "fats") known for their inhibitory effects on tumor development. These marine-derived lipids can be used in two complementary approaches. The first approach is nutritional, particularly through diet. The second approach involves the development of lipid-based anticancer agents whose molecular structures originate or are inspired by the marine world.

Targeting cancer cells or the tumor environment

Regardless of the approach, these marine-derived lipids target specific aspects of tumor cells or the tumor microenvironment. The goal is to act comprehensively throughout the patient's body, as well as on the tumor itself, in order to prevent or inhibit tumor growth, sensitize cancer cells to treatments such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy, and slow cancer-related malnutrition.

By influencing certain stages of tumor formation and progression, dietary factors either stimulate or inhibit their development. Thus, the onset of several types of cancer could be delayed if the intake of dietary components that stimulate tumor development is restricted, or conversely, if inhibitors are introduced into the diet.

Sardines, mackerel, and other oily fish: marine omega-3 sources

Among marine lipids are:
- Polyunsaturated fatty acids, mainly omega-3, consumed through diet, found in oily fish such as sardines, mackerel, and herring.
- Ether lipids, which can be found, for example, in shark liver oil and scallops.

These various types of lipids (polyunsaturated fatty acids of phospholipids and ether lipids) are components of cell membranes, particularly cancerous cells. In cancer cells, these lipids and their derivatives can also modulate signaling pathways that influence tumor development.

The molecular and cellular mechanisms through which these lipids affect tumor development, growth, migration, and invasion of cancer cells, as well as response to treatments, are currently under investigation—especially in our mixed research unit, Inserm - University of Tours UMR 1069 "Niche, Nutrition, Cancer, and Oxidative Metabolism (N2COx)."

Breast, prostate cancers, and leukemia: tumor-fighting fatty acids

In recent years, we have identified several marine-origin lipids or lipid classes with anti- or pro-tumor activities. These lipids act on the cancer cell by integrating into cell membranes where proteins targeted by these lipids (including ion channels) are located.

In prostate cancer, we have identified omega-3s (such as EPA or eicosapentaenoic acid), the presence of which is associated with less aggressive prostate cancer.

In cancer cells, omega-3 EPA blocks a complex process involving a channel named SK3. The SK3 channel facilitates, among other things, the migration of cancer cells, a process responsible for their aggressiveness and metastasis development.



Similarly, in breast cancer, low concentrations of omega-3 EPA and another omega-3 called DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) are associated with more aggressive clinical situations such as multifocal breast cancer (which refers to multiple tumors in the same breast), inflammatory breast cancer, or breast cancer with bone metastases in premenopausal women.

In cases of leukemia, we also demonstrated that omega-3 DHA and EPA exert anti-leukemic activity. This has led to a clinical protocol across multiple research centers, showing that these fatty acids can be safely administered to patients newly diagnosed with high-risk leukemia without compromising chemotherapy.

Additionally, animal studies, which still need confirmation in humans, suggest that omega-3s may also delay cancer-induced malnutrition.

In the aforementioned cancers, the presence of omega-3 EPA and DHA is associated with less aggressive cancers, as these lipids exert anti-tumor effects.

Tomorrow, omega-3 supplementation alongside treatments?

The molecular impact of these omega-3s remains to be explored, but this suggests the potential value of nutritional supplementation for cancer prevention. In this context, our team has shown that omega-3 DHA supplementation during chemotherapy increases the survival of patients with metastatic breast cancer.

We also identified categories of lipids produced by the body (alkyl-lipids and alkenyl-lipids, or plasmalogens), which are generally believed to be found in greater amounts in tumors than in non-tumorous tissues. These lipids are contained within cell membranes, adjacent to the SK3 channel we mentioned earlier, which plays a role in cancer cell migration.

We have recently, for the first time, precisely described the role of these two classes of endogenous lipids. Alkenyl-lipids limit the aggressiveness of cancer cells (by blocking the activity of the SK3 channel), while alkyl-lipids exert the opposite effect (by activating the SK3 channel).


These findings suggest new approaches to combating the progression of cancer cells, which contain both lipid classes in higher concentrations than in healthy tissues.

It would involve promoting the lipid category (alkenyl-lipids) that limits cancer cell aggressiveness. These lipids, found in marine products, could eventually be produced synthetically to be incorporated into curative drugs.

Synthetic ether lipids like Ohmline have also shown therapeutic potential. Indeed, the action of this lipid, recently commercialized by the company Lifesome Therapeutics, helps reduce metastasis development and alter the response to therapeutic antibodies (also called monoclonal antibodies). This synthetic lipid reduces the activity of the SK3 channel, which is involved in cancer cell migration.

This lipid has thus been proposed as an adjunct in chemotherapy to aid in the prevention of neuropathies (localized pain in certain nerves) induced by certain chemotherapies.

Increasing the potential of marine products against cancer

Thus, we are witnessing a continuum from marine product models to therapeutic applications in cancer.

These studies, part of the network "Marine molecules, metabolism, and cancer of the Grand-Ouest Canceropôle", are expected to enhance the potential, already recognized, of marine products in cancer research, offering them as preventative tools and for developing new therapeutic approaches.

We already have very encouraging data on the prevention of cancers via various families of marine or synthetic lipids, which can be proposed as sensitizing agents for chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and therapeutic antibodies.

This article reflects the research conducted by the entire Niche Nutrition Cancer & Oxidative Metabolism (N2COx) team from the University of Tours.