The Effects of Conjugated Linoleic acid on Serum Fatty Acids Composition and Lipid Profile in Patients with Rectal Cancer Undergoing Chemoradiotherapy

Due to the importance of controlling recurrence of colorectal cancer, the effect of serum lipid profile and the fatty acid composition of cancer cell membranes on the response to treatment and survival, and the lack of clinical study on the effect of conjugated linoleic acid supplementation (CLA) in these patients, this study investigated the effect of CLA supplementation on serum fatty acid pattern, lipid profiles, and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) tumor marker in patients with rectal cancer treated with preoperative chemotherapy.

In this randomized double-blind placebo-controlled pilot study, 31 patients with rectal cancer undergoing chemoradiotherapy assigned into the CLA group (n = 15), receiving 3 g CLA/d, and placebo group (n = 16) receiving placebo capsules for 6 weeks. Before and after intervention, serum fatty acid pattern, triglyceride, cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), and CEA were evaluated.

In placebo group, CLA supplementation increased the percentage of serum CLA (P = 0.35). CLA supplementation increased alpha linolenic acid (P = 0.01) significantly, and decreased the total omega-6 fatty acids and the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio. As compare with placebo, CLA supplementation had no significant effect on lipid profiles (P > 0.05).

Considering the positive effects of CLA on omega-3 fatty acids, and to our knowledge, this is the first study that assess the effect of CLA supplementation; further studies with larger sample size are needed to generalize findings of this study.