This finding is based on a small study involved 40 lung cancer patients.Sixteen of them kept a daily dose of 2.2 grams fish oil for 10 weeks; as the comparison group, the other 24 patientsunderwent the same regimenbut the fish oil intake.

The muscle and fat measurements 10 weeks later revealed that the group without fish oil lost an average 5 pounds (about 2.3 kilograms), yet the group took fish oil almost remained the same weight and had no side effects were observed.

This finding seemed to be greatly promising becauseno previous researches found an effective treatment to the malnutrition in cancer patients, said Lona Sandon, a registered dietitian and assistant professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Dallas.

Fish oil can deal withcancer patients' inflammation which may result in the muscle breakdown, explained Vera Mazurak, a researcher of the University of Alberta in Canada.

But, the researchers still hold a cautious attitude to the finding, and warned patients from starting to consume large amount of fish oil before further researches had been done.