May 19, 2008 – Vitamin D deficiency in women with breast cancer increases risk of dying from breast cancer by 73%, University of Toronto study finds1.
In addition, an insufficient level of vitamin D would double the risk of this cancer spreading to other parts of the body. When diagnosed with the disease, only 24% of study participants had sufficient vitamin D levels.
The researchers followed for ten years a group of 512 women in their 50s who had been treated in a Toronto hospital for breast cancer between 1989 and 1995. Of these, 85% of the patients who had sufficient vitamin D levels did not recur or metastasize after ten years, unlike 69% in those with low levels. The survival rate was also higher in those without vitamin D deficiency, at 85% compared to 74% in the others.
According to the study’s authors, these findings are especially important for women in Canada where vitamin D deficiency is common due to lack of sunlight during the many winter months. However, researchers have yet to determine what the optimal amount of vitamin D to take, especially in the form of supplements, would be.
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Claudia Morissette – HealthPassport.net
According to Globe and mail and Radio-Canada.
1 Goodwin PJ, Ennis M. et al. Frequency of vitamin D (Vit D) deficiency at breast cancer (BC) diagnosis and association with risk of distant recurrence and death in a prospective cohort study of T1-3, N0-1, M0 BC, J Clin Oncol 26: 2008 (May 20 suppl; abstr 511).
2. The results were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Oncology.
