Women with low levels of vitamin D are at an increased risk of developing breast cancer, according to a new study.
The study involved 1,394 patients with breast cancer and an equal number of healthy women after menopause.A connection between vitamin D level and breast cancer risk has been implicated for a long time, but its clinical relevance had not yet been proven.
Researchers Sascha Abbas and colleagues from the working group headed by Dr. Jenny Chang-Claude at the German Cancer Research Centre (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ), along with researchers from the University Hospitals in Hamburg-Eppendorf focussed their study on the connection.
They used 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) as a marker for both endogenous vitamin D and vitamin D from food intake.
The findings revealed that women with a very low blood level of 25(OH)D have a greater risk of developing breast cancer.
The effect was found to be strongest in women who were not taking hormones for relief of menopausal symptoms.
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The gene of this receptor is found in several variants known as polymorphisms. They examined the effect of four of these polymorphisms on the risk of developing breast cancer.
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The researchers suggest that vitamin D can exert its cancer-preventing effect by counteracting the growth-promoting effect of estrogens.
Besides its cancer-preventing influence with effects on cell growth, cell differentiation and programmed cell death (apoptosis), vitamin D regulates, the calcium metabolism in the body.
Source-ANI
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