The many benefits of taking fish oil range from keeping the heart healthy to treating arthritis and depression, but recent research suggests that they may also help women to lower their risk of developing breast cancer. The study showed that postmenopausal women between the ages of 50 and 76 who took fish oil were 32 percent less likely to develop certain forms of breast cancer in comparison to women who didn’t. This may be related to the fact that fish oil is full of omega-3 fatty acids commonly found in salmon, tuna, and other fish.

Despite these promising findings, the researchers say it may be premature to recommend that women start taking fish oil to avert breast cancer development.

“People should try to achieve nutrients through a healthy diet, so eating fish is a better recommendation than fish oil,” says the lead author of the study, Dr. Emily White Ph.D, an epidemiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. “We think that fish oil is promising in terms of disease prevention, but it’s not proven.”

Fish oil consumption was measured using surveys, after which rates of breast cancer diagnosis amongst women taking the supplements versus those who did not were determined. Other factors such as age, family history, and past hormone therapy treatment were taken into consideration, but many other unknown factors could have affected the results.

“We tried to equalize the two groups in terms of other health behaviors, but only a randomized trial would offer more definitive information,” White says, referring to a study in which women would be randomly assigned to receive fish oil or a placebo to avoid psychosomatic symptoms.

This is not the first study finding an apparent link between supplements and reduced cancer risk. In fact, a number of studies similar to White’s have been done, but very few of them have been confirmed by more rigorous studies.

“This is an interesting study, but we’ve done a lot of [these] studies that have turned out not to be helpful in terms of prostate cancer prevention,” says Dr. Jay Brooks, M.D., an oncologist at Ochsner Health System, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.