Antioxidants may help prevent breast cancer

Taking antioxidant supplements like vitamin E, vitamin c and ebta-carotene may help reduce the risk of developing breast cancer, a recent study in Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention suggests.

The study also suggests that maintaining high levels of vitamin A in the blood may boost the risk.

The study led by Shah F.D. at The Gujarat Cancer and Research Institute in Asarwa, Ahmedabad, India showed that higher levels of plasma beta-caroten, vitamin E and vitamin C were associated with signficiantly reduced risk of breast cancer.

Oxidative stress is a well known etiological factor for breast cancer and dietary antioxidants play an important role against oxidative stress, according to the background information in the study report. 

The current study was meant to examine the roles of non-enzymatic antioxidants in breast cancer risk in India, the researchers said.

For the study, Shah et al. measured plasma non-enzymatic antioxidants including beta-carotene, vitamin A, vitamin E and vitamin C in 70 healthy women, 30 patients with benign breast diseases and 125 breast cancer patients who had not received treatment.

Women with benign breast diseases had significantly lower serum vitamin C levels compared to controls.  Women with breast cancer have significantly lower serum levels of beta-carotene, vitamin E and vitamin C compared to healthy controls.

In contrast, women with breast diseases, benign or malignant, had significantly higher serum lavels of vitamin A. Also, breast cancer patients had higher levels of vitamin A than those with benign breast diseases.

Odds ratio analysis revealed that increased levels of plasma beta-caroten, vitamin E and C were significnatly linked with decreased risk of breast cancer whereas higher levels of vitamin A were linked to higher risk of breast cancer.

The study is preliminary. To confirm or disprove the findings, more research is needed, the researchers said.

It is more important to know whether using certain foods or taking antioxidants would affect the risk of breast cancer.  Other risk factors such as vitamin D also need to be considered, a health observer suggested.

High vitamin A levels are known to counteract the effect of vitamin D, which has been associated with reduced risk of breast cancer.  Could vitamin D be the missing link in the assocation between higher levels of vitamin A in the blood and increased risk of breast cancer as the current study showed? 

More reports will be published here in the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month to help our readers better understand the disease breast cancer and how to prevent it.

David Liu

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