**1. Introduction**

[312] Gorjao R, Hirabara SM, de Lima TM, Cury-Boaventura MF, Curi R. Regulation of in‐ terleukin-2 signaling by fatty acids in human lymphocytes. J Lipid Res. 2007;48(9):

[313] Oddy WH, de Klerk NH, Kendall GE, Mihrshahi S, Peat JK. Ratio of omega-6 to ome‐

[314] Peat JK, Mihrshahi S, Kemp AS, Marks GB, Tovey ER, Webb K, et al. Three-year out‐ comes of dietary fatty acid modification and house dust mite reduction in the Child‐

[315] Laerum BN, Wentzel-Larsen T, Gulsvik A, Omenaas E, Gislason T, Janson C, et al. Relationship of fish and cod oil intake with adult asthma. Clin Exp Allergy.

[316] Catalli A, MacDonald C, Pundir P, Kulka M. Inhibitory effects of resveratrol on hu‐ man mast cell degranulation, cytokine, chemokine and leukotriene release. Open J

hood Asthma Prevention Study. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2004;114(4):807-13.

ga-3 fatty acids and childhood asthma. J Asthma. 2004;41(3):319-26.

Immunol. (2):187-194. doi:10.4236/oji.2012.24022

344 Using Old Solutions to New Problems - Natural Drug Discovery in the 21st Century

2009-19.

2007;37(11):1616-23.

#### **1.1. Dealing with the burden**

World-wide, approximately 410,000 of the estimated 1 million females diagnosed annually with breast cancer will die from the disease [1]. According to Canadian Cancer Statistics, breast cancer continues to be the most commonly diagnosed cancer among Canadian women over the age of 20 (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) and is the second leading cause of cancer deaths [2]. In 2012, it was estimated that 22,700 Canadian women would be diagnosed with breast cancer and 5,200 would succumb to the disease [2]. Furthermore, the recently published Prince Edward Island (PEI) Cancer Trends Report outlining cancer cases diagnosed from 1980 to 2009 indicates that in PEI, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women [3]. While the overall incidence rate of breast cancer has increased marginally (0.5% per annum) and mortality rates have stabilized since 1992, the long-term survival in PEI women is significantly lower than the Canadian rate [3]. In summary, breast cancer continues to be a world-wide issue requiring attention. Increased awareness and advanced screening, resulting in early detection, is attributed to the increased incidence of the disease and such factors have led to a high percentage (approximately 95%) of all breast cancer patients being initially diagnosed with curable disease [4]. However, 30-40% of patients diagnosed with curable breast cancer succumb to disease reoccurrence [5]. Although increased diagnosis and advances in the treatment of breast cancer are clearly contributing factors in disease progression, eradication of residual malignancies and metastatic tumors via a systemic approach is considered the key

© 2013 Tobin et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2013 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

for success in treating cancer and increasing cancer patient survival [6]. There is an urgent need to explore agents that will be effective in preventing and treating metastasis of breast tumors.

#### **1.2. The biology of breast cancer**

In general, cancer occurs when a normal cell accumulates genetic and/or epigenetic changes caused by the activation or amplification of oncogenes and/or the mutation or loss of tumor suppressor function, resulting in the ability to proliferate indefinitely [7]. While these specific alterations lead to the transformation of the normal cell and partly determine the characteri‐ zation of the tumor, the cell of origin and tumor (micro-) environment are also considered important factors contributing to tumor cell establishment, progression and therapeutic resistance [8].
