SAN DIEGO, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- A U.S. meta-analysis found that raising the serum level of vitamin D may cut in half the cases of breast cancer and two-thirds of colorectal-cancer cases.
The breast-cancer study, published online in the Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, found that individuals with the highest blood levels of vitamin D had the lowest risk of breast cancer.
"The data were very clear, showing that individuals in the group with the lowest blood levels had the highest rates of breast cancer, and the breast cancer rates dropped as the blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D increased," said study co-author Cedric Garland of the Moores Cancer Center at University of California-San Diego. "The serum level associated with a 50 percent reduction in risk could be maintained by taking 2,000 international units of vitamin D3 daily plus, when the weather permits, spending 10 to 15 minutes a day in the sun."
The colorectal-cancer study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, is a meta-analysis of five studies that found raising the serum level of vitamin D would reduce the incidence rates of colorectal cancer by half, according to study co-author Edward D. Gorham of the Moores Cancer Center.
