Multivitamin Use and Breast Cancer: Protective or Harmful?

[Guest guest]

Use of multivitamins was associated with a decreased risk for breast cancer

in women, according to a case–control study of 725 women from Puerto Rico

presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 101st

Annual Meeting.

However, in the same week these data were presented, an observational study

of 35,329 women from Sweden reported the opposite — that multivitamin use is

associated with an increased risk for breast cancer.

So which is it? Are multivitamins harmful or helpful?

A definitive answer cannot come from these types of studies, which are not

randomized controlled trials and, suggest both sets of authors, are subject

to confounding factors.

Still, the authors of both studies had supporting ideas about why their

findings were biologically plausible.

Both studies have possible public health implications of considerable scope,

because " about 40% of US women reported using multivitamins in 1999-2000, "

write the Swedish researchers in their paper, which appears in the May issue

of the *American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.*

*Multivitamins Boost DNA Repair Capacity*

The study with the positive findings, led by Matta, MD, from the Ponce

School of Medicine in Puerto Rico, involved 268 women with recently

diagnosed untreated breast cancer and 457 women without breast cancer who

acted as control sunjects. The majority of the women in the study were 41 to

60 years of age.

All of the women in the study completed an 8-page family history, medical

history, lifestyle questionnaire, which included 3 sections on vitamin and

dietary supplement intake over the previous 5 years.

The study found a 33% decrease in breast cancer risk associated with

multivitamin use and a 41% decrease associated with calcium use.

The 2 effects were independent of each other.

The authors also measured the women's DNA repair capacity, which is a

mechanism that helps prevent damaged normal cells from turning into cancer

cells, including those in the breast.

DNA repair capacity was measured with a validated assay, using blood samples

previously taken from all study participants.

They found that " a higher DNA repair capacity was associated with

multivitamin intake and calcium intake, " said Dr. Matta.

" Our paper is the first to show that DNA repair capacity can be modified by

multivitamin and/or calcium intake, " he said. Previous research has

suggested that DNA repair capacity is " genetically fixed, " he explained.

They also found that a decreased DNA repair capacity was associated with

breast cancer. Specifically, for each decreasing percent unit of DNA repair

capacity, the odds of having breast cancer increased 1.9 times.

In addition, the researchers had more conventional findings: a family

history of breast cancer meant 2.2-fold greater odds of having breast

cancer. Advancing age, increasing body mass index, and not breastfeeding

also statistically significantly increased the risk for breast cancer.

Notably, when the researchers included DNA repair capacity in their risk

analysis (logistic regression model), the protective effect of calcium was

no longer statistically significant, " suggesting that DNA repair capacity is

responsible for the association we found, " they write in their AACR

abstract.

In contrast, the association of multivitamin intake and breast cancer was

unaffected when they adjusted for higher levels of DNA repair capacity,

suggesting that multivitamins are an " independent protective factor, " write

Dr. Matta and colleagues.

Also of note was the fact that taking single supplements of each vitamin (A,

E, C, and beta-carotene alone) was not associated with a significant

reduction in breast cancer risk, reported Dr. Matta.

" This is not so weird because vitamins have been shown to work better

collectively in their antioxidant effect, " he said about taking isolated

versions of these standard ingredients in multivitamins.

" Take your multivitamin, " Dr. Matta told *Medscape Oncology*. " It's a cheap

insurance policy. "

*Do Multivitamins Promote Breast Density?*

An oppositive conclusion comes out of the Swedish study, which spanned 10

years and involved 35,329 women with an average age of about 61 years.

" We observed a 19% increased risk of breast cancer associated with

multivitamin use after adjustment for other breast cancer risk factors, "

write the authors, led by na Larsson, PhD, and colleagues from the

Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

The Swedish authors note that previous " epidemiologic studies of the

association between multivitamin use and breast cancer risk yielded

inconsistent results. "

Their findings are much like " those of the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and

Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial cohort, in which an 18% increased risk of

breast cancer was observed among users of multivitamins [relative risk,

1.18; 95% confidence interval, 0.95 - 1.48] who were followed up from 1993

to May 2003, " they note.

" The possibility that multivitamin use may increase the risk of breast

cancer is biologically plausible, " explain the Swedish investigators.

However, unlike the study from Puerto Rico, the plausibility relates to

findings from outside the new research.

Namely, Dr. Larsson and her coauthors cite a recent study that showed that

the current use of multivitamins and minerals in premenopausal women was

associated with a statistically significant 5.3% higher mean mammographic

breast density (*Am J Clin Nutr*. 2008;87:1400-1404).

Breast density is " strongly and positively related to breast cancer risk, "

write Dr. Larsson and colleagues.

Folic acid in supplements could also increase the risk for breast cancer,

they add. " High doses of folic acid from supplements or fortified foods are

of concern because synthetic folic acid is more bioavailable than folate

from natural food sources and, hence, potentially more potent in promoting

cancer growth, " they write.

If folic acid is responsible for the observed association between

multivitamin use and the risk for breast cancer, the association might not

be seen in the American population, the authors posit. Why?

" Because breakfast cereals and grain products have been fortified with folic

acid since 1998 in the United States. " This would complicate the detection

of the influence of folic acid.

There is no mandatory folic acid fortification in Sweden, they add.

Dr. Larsson and her coauthors believe their findings are a matter of

" concern " and in need of further research.

*Dr. Larsson's study was supported by research grants from the Swedish

Cancer Foundation and the Swedish Research Council for Infrastructure. The

authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.*

American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 101st Annual Meeting:

Abstract 4568. Presented April 18, 2010.

*Am J Clin Nutr*. 2010;91:1268-1272.

Abstract<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20335555>

www.medscape.com

<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20335555>

--

Ortiz, MS, RD

" I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you

want to annoy for the rest of your life. "

" Cause of obesity, heart disease and cancer: Look at the end of your fork "