RE: Plasma Phospholipid Fatty Acids and Prostate Cancer Risk in the SELECT

Brasky et al. (1) reported that higher plasma omega-3 fatty acid levels were associated with increased risk for developing prostate cancer. The authors inappropriately impli-cated the dietary intake of omega-3 (fish and/or supplements) as potentially causal for prostate cancer, and they failed to con-sider other potential explanations for their observation. For example, He et al. (2) and Azordegan et al. (3) both provide evidence that in precancerous tissues early changes in fatty acid metabolism (eg, increases in the activity of delta-6-desaturase [D6D]) could increase tissue (and possibly plasma) levels of long-chain n-3 fatty acids. Hence