Research

Macro partitioning

Supplementation with 2.2 g of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) per day during first-line chemotherapy prevents weight loss and maintains skeletal muscle mass in patients with non-small cell lung cancer compared to standard of care.

For lung cancer patients starting chemotherapy, taking 2.2 grams of EPA daily from fish oil helps maintain weight and muscle mass, which is critical for survival and treatment tolerance. This should start immediately with chemotherapy.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Nutritional intervention with 2.2 g of FO per day appears to provide a benefit over SOC, resulting in the maintenance of weight and muscle mass during chemotherapy.
Rachel A. Murphy et al. · Cancer · 2011

Why this rating

The study is a randomized controlled trial but uses an open-label, non-randomized design with a small sample size (n=40) and a contemporaneous control group rather than a large multi-center trial.

Source

Nutritional intervention with fish oil provides a benefit over standard of care for weight and skeletal muscle mass in patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer receiving chemotherapy

Rachel A. Murphy et al. · Cancer · 2011

DOI 10.1002/cncr.25709

clinical_trial · n=40Cited 279×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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