Today

Consumption of fatty fish, such as salmon and mackerel, may help provide protection against kidney cancer, a Swedish study has suggested.

Karolinska Institutet researchers studied more than 60,000 Swedish women aged between 40 and 76 over a 15-year period.

They found women who ate one portion of fatty fish a week had a 74 per cent lower risk of kidney cancer compared to those who never consumed fatty fish.

Women who ate lean fish, such as tuna and cod, at least once a week saw a 40 per cent reduction.

The results of the study are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Susanna Larsson, Karolinska Institute: "We think it is a combination of omega-3 fatty acids and D vitamin that works against cancer."

Researcher Alicja Wolk said: "This is the first time that a link between the consumption of fatty fish and kidney cancer has been studied.

"The reason previous studies have been unable to demonstrate a link between fish consumption and renal cancer is that they made no distinction between fatty and non-fatty fish.”

One significant difference between oily and non-fatty fish lies in how much omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D they contain - substances that, according to earlier studies, seem to protect against cancer and heart disease.

Fatty fish contains 20 to 30 times more omega-3 fatty acids than non-oily fish, and 3 to 5 times as much vitamin D.

"We think it is a combination of omega-3 fatty acids and D vitamin that works against cancer," added Susanna Larsson, a doctor with the Karolinska Institute.

"We already knew that fatty fish helps prevent heart disease, and that vitamin D reduced the risk for other cancers."

The number of people being diagnosed with kidney cancer in the UK has increased dramatically over the past 10 years.

According to figures from Cancer Research UK, around 6,000 people are told they have the disease every year.

Kidney cancer accounts for just under 3 per cent of all cancers in men and just under 2 per cent of all cancers in women in the UK.