The impact of diet and associated lifestyle choices on the risk of developing cancer is well established. However, whether these parameters also affect cancer recurrence and survival is less well investigated. Virtually nothing is known about the impact of diet on the development of metastases. It is therefore significant that a study in this issue of Clinical and experimental metastasis reports that breast cancer-bearing mice fed on a diet rich in long-chain omega-3 fatty acids had a lower incidence of metastasis than control mice, which was associated with modified infiltration of immune cells into the tumors. These findings should form the basis of further pre-clinical evaluation with a view to clinical application.
Keywords: Breast cancer; Diet; Fatty acids; Metastasis; Microenvironment.