Table 2.

Gas chromatography assessment of the breast adipose tissue fatty acid composition according to the presence of bone metastasis in premenopausal women.

Fatty Acids *		No Bone Metastasis n = 78		Bone Metastasis n = 21		Statistics
		Mean	Range	Mean	Range	p
Saturated
Myristic acid	14:0	3.47	1.65–4.90	3.56	2.47–4.72	0.14
Palmitic acid	16:0	23.61	19.63–28.8	23.9	21.01–26.63	0.52
Stearic acid	18:0	6.02	3.20–8.33	5.96	3.03–8.57	0.86
	Total SFA	34.11	25.97–40.62	34.37	29.85–40.12	0.68
Monounsaturated
Myristoleic acid	14:1	0.27	0.01–0.56	0.30	0.14–0.60	0.38
Palmitoleic acid	16:1	3.34	1.09–8.45	3.56	1.80–6.89	0.54
Oleic acid	18:1n-9c	43.23	38.01–47.65	43.17	38.13–48.11	0.91
Vaccenic acid	18:1n-7c	1.79	1.25–2.86	1.81	1.39–2.56	0.81
	Total MUFA	49.94	42.48–56.19	50.15	45.92–55.71	0.77
Polyunsaturated
Linoleic acid	18:2n-6c	10.63	6.43–21.0	10.37	7.39–15.05	0.59
Gamma linolenic acid	18:3n-6	0.04	0.02–0.09	0.04	0.02–0.06	0.31
Arachidonic acid	20:4n-6	0.29	0.15–0.63	0.30	0.16–0.60	0.92
	LC PUFA n-6	0.91	0.45–2.06	0.88	0.50-1.55	0.71
	Total n-6	11.61	6.94–22.68	11.33	8.30–16.22	0.57
Alpha linolenic acid	18:3n-3	0.60	0.29–1.04	0.58	0.37–0.98	0.62
Eicosapentaenoic acid	20:5n-3	0.07	0.02–0.16	0.06	0.03–0.11	0.15
Docosapentaenoic acid	22:5n-3	0.19	0.05–0.51	0.16	0.07–0.24	0.03
Docosahexaenoic acid	22:6n-3	0.16	0.03–0.35	0.13	0.05–0.21	0.06
	LC PUFA n-3	0.42	0.12–0.97	0.36	0.16–0.49	0.02
	Total n-3	1.05	0.63–1.52	0.97	0.60–1.43	0.11
n-6/n-3 ratio	n-6/n-3	11.41	7.26–26.91	11.98	7.69–20.07	0.44

* expressed as % area, SFA: saturated fatty acids, MUFA: monounsaturated fatty acids, PUFA: polyunsaturated fatty acids, LC PUFA: long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids.