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# Vitamin D may indeed prevent breast cancer?
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/vitamin_d_may_indeed_prevent_breast_cancer_0419140356/
- Published: 2014-04-19T16:56:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:10:11.000Z
- Description: In a case-control study of 707 postmenopausal breast cancer patients and matched controls, each 20 ng/mL rise in plasma 25(OH)D3 was tied to 72 percent lower breast cancer risk among white women. The association did not hold in the other race and ethnic groups studied.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Cancer, Avoiding Illness, #vivvo-import

Saturday April 19, 2014 (foodconsumer.org) -- A study released recently in the journal BMC Cancer suggests that taking vitamin D supplements may help prevent breast cancer in postmenopausal women.

The case–control study led by Marc T Goodman from Cancer Epidemiology Program, University of Hawaii Cancer Center in Honolulu, HI, USA and colleagues shows pre-diagnosed plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 was associated with decreased risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal white women.

Early studies have already discovered that higher sunlight exposure is associated with lower incidence of breast cancer suggesting that vitamin D may be protective against breast cancer.

The study was based on data from the Multiethnic Cohort Study of five race/ethnic groups including white, African-American, Native Hawaiian, Japanese, and Latino in Hawaii and Los Angeles between 2001 and 2006\. 

For the study, pre-diagnostic plasma levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D2, 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 and 25(OH)D (sum of D2 and D3) were tested in 707 women with postmenopausal breast cancer and matched controls.

Increasing plasma 25(OH)D3 or 25(OH)D by 20 ng/mL was associated with 72% or 57% decreased risk of breast cancer among white women, but not other race/ethnic groups.

The study concluded "Circulating 25(OH)D3 and 25(OH)D were associated with a reduced risk of postmenopausal breast cancer among whites, but not in other ethnic groups, who reside in low latitude regions." (David Liu)