Vitamin D and Breast Cancer

Harry Hirsute · � #1 � 04-18-2008, 09:58 AM

Quote:

A connection between vitamin D level and the risk of developing breast cancer has been implicated for a long time, but its clinical relevance had not yet been proven. Sascha Abbas and colleagues from the working group headed by Dr. Jenny Chang-Claude at the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ), collaborating with researchers of the University Hospitals in Hamburg-Eppendorf, have now obtained clear results:

While previous studies had concentrated chiefly on nutritional vitamin D, the researchers have now investigated the complete vitamin D status. To this end, they studied 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) as a marker for both endogenous vitamin D and vitamin D from food intake.

The result of the study involving 1,394 breast cancer patients and an equal number of healthy women after menopause was surprisingly clear: Women with a very low blood level of 25(OH)D have a considerably increased breast cancer risk. The effect was found to be strongest in women who were not taking hormones for relief of menopausal symptoms.

However, the authors note that, in this retrospective study, diagnosis-related factors such as chemotherapy or lack of sunlight after prolonged hospital stays might have contributed to low vitamin levels of breast cancer patients.

In addition, the investigators focused on the vitamin D receptor. The gene of this receptor is found in several variants known as polymorphisms. The research team of the DKFZ and Eppendorf Hospitals investigated the effect of four of these polymorphisms on the risk of developing breast cancer.

They found out that carriers of the Taql polymorphism have a slightly increased risk of breast tumors that carry receptors for the female sex hormone estrogen on their surface. No effects on the overall breast cancer risk were found. A possible explanation offered by the authors is that vitamin D can exert its cancer-preventing effect by counteracting the growth-promoting effect of estrogens.

Besides its cancer-preventing influence with effects on cell growth, cell differentiation and programmed cell death (apoptosis), vitamin D regulates, above all, the calcium metabolism in our body. Foods that are particularly rich in vitamin D include seafish (cod liver oil), eggs and dairy products. However, the largest portion of vitamin D is produced by our own body with the aid of sunlight.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-vda041808.php

Harry Hirsute · � #2 � 09-29-2008, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Vitamin D again linked to breast cancer protection By Stephen Daniells

26-Sep-2008 -

Increased intake of vitamin D from the diet and from sunlight may reduce the risk fo breast cancer by over 20 per cent, says a new study.

The potential protective effects of the vitamin were not limited by the hormone receptor status of the tumours, according to research published online in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

“This study suggests that vitamin D is associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer regardless of [oestrogen-receptor (ER) positive and progesterone-receptor (PR)] status of the tumour,” wrote lead author Kristina Blackmore from Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.

Over one million women worldwide are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, with the highest incidences in the US and the Netherlands. China has the lowest incidence and mortality rate of the disease.

Hormone-sensitive oestrogen-receptor (ER) positive and progesterone-receptor (PR) positive tumours are said to be the most common type diagnosed among breast cancer patients in the US. These tumours are stimulated to grow by the female hormones oestrogen and progesterone.

Study details

“Few epidemiologic studies have considered the association between vitamin D and hormone-receptor-defined breast cancer,” wrote Blackmore.

In order to start filling this knowledge gap, the Canadian researchers analysed the vitamin D intakes of 759 women with breast cancer, and compared this to the vitamin D intakes of 1,135 healthy controls.

Increased intakes of the vitamin were associated with a 24 per cent reduction in the risk of developing ER+ and PR+ tumours, said the researchers. Moreover, increased intakes were also associated with 26 and 21 per cent reductions in the risk of receptor-negative (ER–/PR–) and mixed receptor (ER+/PR–) tumours. However, these last two associations were not significant, said the researchers.

“Future studies with a larger number of receptor-negative and mixed tumours are required,” they concluded.

D and the big C

The link between vitamin D intake and protection from cancer dates from the 1940s when Frank Apperly demonstrated a link between latitude and deaths from cancer, and suggested that sunlight gave "a relative cancer immunity".

Vitamin D refers to two biologically inactive precursors - D3, also known as cholecalciferol, and D2, also known as ergocalciferol. Both D3 and D2 precursors are hydroxylated in the liver and kidneys to form 25- hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D), the non-active 'storage' form, and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH)2D), the biologically active form that is tightly controlled by the body.

There is growing evidence that 1,25(OH)2D has anticancer effects, but the discovery that non-kidney cells can also hydroxylate 25(OH)D had profound implications, implying that higher 25(OH)D levels could protect against cancer in the local sites.

Source: American Journal of Epidemiology

Published online ahead of print, doi:10.1093/aje/kwn198

“Vitamin D From Dietary Intake and Sunlight Exposure and the Risk of Hormone-Receptor-Defined Breast Cancer”

Authors: K.M. Blackmore, M. Lesosky, H. Barnett, J.M. Raboud, R. Vieth, J.A. Knight

https://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/...cer-protection

Ted_Hutchinson · � #3 � 05-29-2009, 01:06 PM

Prognostic Effects of 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Levels in Early Breast Cancer.
PURPOSE:
Vitamin D has been linked to breast cancer risk, but prognostic effects are unknown. Such effects are biologically plausible given the presence of vitamin D receptors in breast cancer cells, which act as nuclear transcription factors to regulate gene activity.
PATIENTS AND METHODS:
The study was conducted in a prospective inception cohort of 512 women with early breast cancer diagnosed 1989 to 1996. Vitamin D levels were measured in stored blood. Clinical, pathologic, and dietary data were accessed to examine prognostic effects of vitamin D.
RESULTS:
Mean age was 50.4 years, mean vitamin D was 58.1 +/- 23.4 nmol/L. Vitamin D levels were deficient (< 50 nmol/L) in 37.5% of patients, insufficient (50 to 72 nmol/L) in 38.5% of patients, and sufficient (> 72 nmol/L) in 24.0% of patients. There was little variation in mean vitamin D levels between summer and winter months. Mean follow-up was 11.6 years; 116 women had distant recurrences, and 106 women died. Women with deficient vitamin D levels had an increased risk of distant recurrence (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.94; 95% CI, 1.16 to 3.25) and death (HR = 1.73; 95% CI, 1.05 to 2.86) compared with those with sufficient levels. The association remained after individual adjustment for key tumor and treatment related factors but was attenuated in multivariate analyses (HR = 1.71; 95% CI, 1.02 to 2.86 for distant recurrence; HR = 1.60; 95% CI, 0.96 to 2.64 for death).
CONCLUSION:
Vitamin D deficiency may be associated with poor outcomes in breast cancer.

Their idea of deficient and insufficient and even sufficient are really out of date.
We really should regard any level below 80nmol/l 32ng as deficient as under that level you can measure adverse consequences in Bone Mineral Density
under 100nmol/l 40ng should be regarded as insufficient as you need to be at 40ng 100nmol/l or above in order for calctriol to be produced optimally but to have the lowest incidence of disease and best prognosis for cancer you need at level at or above 55ng as only then does your body have an effective store of D3 to call on to fight the condition.

The deficient state is one where things get worse if you don't change matters. You haven't enough money coming in each week to pay the weekly bills, you're putting the difference on the credit card and you know you can't do that for evermore.

The insufficient state is where you can almost make the weekly income match weekly expenditure but it requires both luck and skillfull management and you have nothing in reserve to meet any exceptional circumstance.

Optimal status is where your weekly income exceeds your weekly expenditure, you have a small easily accessible reserve that you can call on as needed.

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