Vitamin D increases breast cancer patient survival, study finds by Science Recorder According to a news release from the University of California at San Diego, vitamin D increases breast cancer patient survival. UCSD School of Medicine researchers discovered that breast cancer patients with high levels of vitamin D in their blood are twice as likely to survive as women with low levels of vitamin D. The studys findings are described in greater detail in the journal Anticancer Research. Previously, Cedric F. Garland, DrPH, professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, revealed that low vitamin D levels were associated with a high risk of premenopausal breast cancer. That discovery encouraged him to explore the relationship between 25-hydroxyvitamin D and breast cancer survival rates. Vitamin D metabolites increase communication between cells by switching on a protein that blocks aggressive cell division, noted Garland in a statement. As long as vitamin D receptors are present tumor growth is prevented and kept from expanding its blood supply. Vitamin D receptors are not lost until a tumor is very advanced. This is the reason for better survival in patients whose vitamin D blood levels are high. Based on a statistical analysis of five studies that included 4,443 breast cancer patients, the researchers learned that women in the high serum group had an average level of 30 nanograms per milliliter of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in their blood. The low group averaged 17 ng/ml. The average level in patients with breast cancer in the U.S. is 17 ng/ml. The study has implications for including vitamin D as an adjuvant to conventional breast cancer therapy, posited co-author Heather Hofflich, DO, UCSD associate professor in the Department of Medicine. Garland suggested that doctors think about adding vitamin D into a breast cancer patients standard care now and then closely keep watch over the patient. There is no compelling reason to wait for further studies to incorporate vitamin D supplements into standard care regimens since a safe dose of vitamin D needed to achieve high serum levels above 30 nanograms per milliliter has already been established, explained Garland. According to the National Institutes of Healths Office of Dietary Supplements, vitamin D is essential to the body in several other ways: muscles need it to move, nerves require it to carry message between the brain and every body part and the immune system requires the nutrient to deal with invading bacteria and viruses.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 05:38:36 +0000
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