"A new study has found that consumption of omega fatty acids from fish is associated with a reduced risk for one kind of colon polyp but only in women. Animal studies have suggested that omega fatty acids may have anticancer httphealth.nytimes.comhealthguidesdiseasecanceroverview.htmlinlinenytclassifier effects but the results from human epidemiological studies have been inconclusive. For this casecontrol study researchers recruited  colonoscopy httphealth.nytimes.comhealthguidestestcolonoscopyoverview.htmlinlinenytclassifier patients  percent of them men at two Tennessee hospitals over a sevenyear period ending in April . The analysis appears online in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. They found  people with polyps leaving  polypfree controls. All patients were interviewed about diet health habits and medical history. After controlling for age race body mass index smoking httphealth.nytimes.comhealthguidesspecialtopicsmokingandsmokelesstobaccooverview.htmlinlinenytclassifier and other factors the researchers found that women in the highest fifth for omega consumption  those who consumed three or more servings of fish a week  were  percent less likely than women in the lowest fifth to have adenomatous polyps http a type likely to become cancerous. The researchers found no effect in men and no effect of omega consumption on hyperplastic polyps which are more likely to be benign. This is more evidence to suggest that omegas are beneficial and may have antiinflammatory action helpful in reducing cancer risk said the lead author Dr. Harvey J. Murff an associate professor of medicine at Vanderbilt."