Table 3.

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

Fatty Acid *		No Bone Metastasis n = 127		Bone Metastasis n = 32		Statistics
		Mean	Range	Mean	Range	p
Saturated
Myristic acid	14:0	3.00	1.65–5.25	3.04	1.83–4.63	0.76
Palmitic acid	16:0	22.42	16.71–28.13	23.27	18.23–27.58	0.07
Stearic acid	18:0	5.07	1.99–7.82	5.06	2.79–7.66	0.98
	Total SFA	31.36	23.42–40.32	32.25	23.74–37.27	0.22
Monounsaturated
Myristoleic acid	14:1	0.27	0.05–0.51	0.24	0.08–0.48	0.20
Palmitoleic acid	16:1	3.90	1.41–7.49	3.64	1.65–7.97	0.38
Oleic acid	18:1n-9c	43.61	36.59–50.57	43.49	38.73–49.16	0.81
Vaccenic acid	18:1n-7c	2.03	1.40–3.50	1.99	1.47–3.75	0.67
	Total MUFA	51.14	42.02–60.9	50.63	45.26–58.81	0.51
Polyunsaturated
Linoleic acid	18:2n-6c	11.45	6.27–18.76	11.23	5.97–21.49	0.68
Gamma linolenic acid	18:3n-6	0.05	0.02–0.10	0.04	0.02–0.16	0.56
Arachidonic acid	20:4n-6	0.44	0.20–1.01	0.45	0.23–0.88	0.72
	LC-PUFA n-6	1.29	0.55–3.76	1.34	0.71–2.24	0.60
	Total n-6	12.82	7.35–20.06	12.64	7.21–22.74	0.75
Alpha linolenic acid	18:3n-3	0.60	0.20–1.30	0.60	0.28–1.32	0.96
Eicosapentaenoic acid	20:5n-3	0.10	0.02–0.31	0.09	0.03–0.33	0.39
Docosapentaenoic acid	22:5n-3	0.30	0.09–0.61	0.43	0.16–0.88	0.17
Docosahexaenoic acid	22:6n-3	0.25	0.04–0.54	0.27	0.08–0.87	0.43
	LC-PUFA n-3	0.65	0.19–1.20	0.70	0.28–2.08	0.43
	Total n-3	1.30	0.69–2.15	1.34	0.65–2.79	0.54
n-6/n-3 ratio		10.46	5.49–27.08	9.96	3.42–17.87	0.41

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