Lee Swanson Research Update

Supplementation with Vitamin D and Calcium Reduces Cancer Risk

June 2007

Researchers at the Osteoporosis Research Center, Creighton University, Omaha have found that "improving calcium and vitamin D nutritional status substantially reduces all-cancer risk in postmenopausal women."

In initiating a study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers stated: "Numerous observational studies have found supplemental calcium and vitamin D to be associated with reduced risk of common cancers. However, interventional studies to test this effect are lacking. The purpose of this analysis was to determine the efficacy of calcium alone and calcium plus vitamin D in reducing incident cancer risk of all types."

The four-year, population-based, double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled trial studied 1,179 healthy postmenopausal women in a nine-county rural area of Nebraska. Subjects were randomly assigned to receive 1,400 to 1,500 mg supplemental calcium alone, supplemental calcium and 1,100 IU of vitamin D3 or placebo.

Researchers found that only 13 women, or three percent, developed cancer over four years of calcium and vitamin D supplementation. With calcium alone, 17 women, or four percent, got cancer. With placebo, cancer appeared in 20 women, or seven percent. That shows a 60% lower cancer risk over four years in the group taking both supplements, compared to patients taking placebos.

When first-year cancers were excluded—the ones most likely present before the study began—the findings were even stronger: a 77% lower risk for the combo group. While the calcium-only group lowered its four-year cancer risk by 47% compared to the untreated group, it did no better when early cancers were excluded. That suggests calcium alone may have done little in the experiment.

Experts reviewing the study focused on vitamin D as the powerful agent in the combo group, but it can’t be ruled out that calcium might somehow amplify the effect of vitamin D. The study’s lead researcher, Joan Lappe, said the study "just adds to the great bunch of evidence that we need to have better vitamin D nutrition."

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 85(6):1586-1591, 2007

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