Decreased Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Content Contributes to Increased Survival in Human Colon Cancer

Table 1

Percentage of the content of polyunsaturated fatty acids in phospholipids extracted from colon cancer specimens and corresponding non-neoplastic mucosa.

Fatty acids	A		B		C		D
	Mucosa	Tumour	Mucosa	Tumour	Mucosa	Tumour	Mucosa	Tumour
18∶2	12.5	9.1	10.1	8.9	12.1	10.7	12.5	7.6*
18∶3	0.2	0.7	0.4	0.3	1.0	1.1	0.8	0.6
CLA	0.5	0.5	1.4	0.2*	1.2	0.5*	0.7	0.2*
20∶4	11.0	7.1*	11.4	8.1*	11.6	7.7*	13.4	9.5*
22∶6	1.0	1.5	1.8	1.5	1.6	1.8	2.4	1.9
∑ PUFA	25.2	18.9*	25.1	19.0*	27.6	21.3*	29.9	19.8*
∑ MUFA + saturated	74.8	81.1*	74.9	81.1*	72.4	78.7*	70.1	80.2*

The SD was not more than 10%. For each fatty acid, the variance analysis followed by post hoc Newman-Keuls test was carried out. The table only shows the significance of differences between mucosa and tumor specimens (* tumour versus mucosa, 𝑃<.05). The differences among tumour specimens at different Duke’s stages (A, B, C, D) were not significant.
∑ PUFA: sum of all polyunsaturated fatty acids; ∑ MUFA + saturated: sum of all monounsaturated and saturated fatty acids.