Table 2.

Fatty acids in cancer: collection of data from studies on erythrocyte membrane fatty acids in patients affected by different types of cancer and emerging biomarkers.

Cancer Type	Country	Human Cohort Size	Outcomes	Reference
Breast/Prostate/Liver/Pancreas/Colon/Lung	Puerto Rico	255 cancer patients 2800 non cancer patients 34 healthy volunteers	Lower levels of stearic acid and increased content of oleic acid. EPA and DHA/ALA ratio to estimate PUFA imbalances in cancer patients.	[65]
Colorectal	Japan	61 cases 42 controls	Less EPA and linoleic acid and high levels of arachidonic acid in cancer patients.	[66]
Breast	Italy	71 cases 141 controls	High oleic acid and low stearic acid in patients. Oleic acid and MUFA positively associated with breast cancer risk. Saturation index (stearic/oleic acids ratio) inversely correlated.	[67]
Colorectal	Italy	13 cancer patients 13 patients with no malignant diseases	Lower levels of n-3 PUFAs and higher n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio in cancer patients.	[68]
Breast/Colon/Lung	Spain	54 cases 34 controls	Less SFA (C16:0 and C18:0), high MUFA (9c-C18:1 and 11c-C18:1) compared to controls. In the PUFA families, increase in n-6 C18:2 and C20:3 (15.7% and 22.2%, respectively).	[69]
Colorectal	France	328 cases 619 controls	High levels of pentadecanoic and heptadecanoic acids; oleic acid and linoleic acid associated with the risk of advanced adenomas. EPA and DHA negatively associated with the risk of advanced adenomas.	[70]
Basal Cell Carcinoma	Iran	40 cases, 40 controls	Low palmitic and high oleic acid levels in cancer patients. Saturation index (stearic/oleic acids ratio) lower in cancer patients.	[71]
Basal Cell Carcinoma	Iran	40 cases, 40 controls	Higher AA, total omega-6 and LA in cancer patients, lower omega-3.	[72]
Colorectal	Japan	74 cases, 221 controls	Risk of colorectal cancer inversely associated with DHA, AA and PUFAs and positively associated with palmitic acid, SFAs and SFA/PUFA.	[73]
Breast	China	322 cases, 1030 controls	Significant direct association among palmitic, γ-linolenic, palmitoleic and vaccenic acids and risk of breast cancer. Total n-3 fatty acids, EPA and 16:0/16:1 saturation index associated with significantly lower risk of breast cancer.	[74]
Prostate	USA	127 cases, 183 controls	MUFA and α-linolenic/EPA ratio associated with reduced risk of prostate cancer.	[75]
Advanced squamous cell lung carcinoma (SCC), lung adenocarcinoma (ADC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC)	Spain	63 patients, 50 controls	AA, EPA, palmitic, oleic acids biomarkers in diagnosis and in other aspects related to clinical disease management of cancer.	[76]