Saturday May 3, 2014 (foodconsumer.org) -- A new study released in Cancer Causes & Control suggests that serum levels of vitamin D may not be related to the risk of breast cancer in premenopausal women.

Vitamin D deficiency has been found highly associated with elevated risk of breast cancer.  The potential impact of high vitamin D levels on the risk of breast cancer is so great that some scientists believe that 75% of breast cancer cases can be prevented by simply maintaining a high level of vitamin D.

The current study led by Jun Wang at University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Massachusetts and colleagues finds no correlation between plasma calculated free 25(OH)D and overall risk of breast cancer. 

For the study, plasma samples from 582 cases of breast cancer and the same number of controls who were selected from the Nurses’ Health Study II were assayed for total 25-hydroxyvitamin D and vitamin D binding protein.  And free 25(OH)D levels were calculated based on the total vitamin D, vitamin D binding protein and a constant indicating average albumin levels.

The study does not find any association either between vitamin D binding protein levels and risk of breast cancer.

This study is not a trial and it does not prove that vitamin D is useless in preventing breast cancer.  The preventative effect may depend on the dosage or the concentrations of vitamin D in the blood.

Vitamin D deficiency has been found to be associated with more than 100 health conditions including infections, autism, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and depression.

Further reads

/vitamin_d_may_indeed_prevent_breast_cancer_0419140356/

/vitamin_d_may_help_prevent_breast_cancer_1115130557/

/vitamin_d_supplements_breast_cancer_survival_1009130714/

/vitamin_d_breast_cancer_0511131129/

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