Eicosanoids, Their Dietary Precursors and Drugs that Modify Their Production or Actions: Implications in Cancer

Cancer may be commonly described as an inappropriate and uncontrolled division of cells that then spread through the vascular system by metastasis to sites remote from the original focus of tumor growth. The initial growth of tumor cells may be dependent upon both circulating hormones (e.g. insulin or steroid sex hormones) and also upon growth factors derived locally from other cells or from the tumor cells themselves (1,2).