Vitamin D and calcium intake may reduce risk of breast cancer

Microcalcifications are tiny deposits of calcium salts that can be detected by imaging. They can occur as scatterings throughout the mammary glands or as clusters. Microcalcifications can be an early breast cancer sign. It is possible to classify by radiography, based on radiology, how likely microcalcifications are to indicate cancer.

Microcalcifications could result from many benign processes in the breast, including duct ectasia, fibrocystic change, fibroadenomatoid, and fat necrosis. Papillomas and fibroadenomas can also become calcified. Sometimes typical structures, such as the small blood vessels or skin, can calcify. It can also develop in normal stroma or atrophic breast lobules.

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that is naturally present in few foods like flesh of fatty fish such as trout, salmon, tuna, and mackerel, fish liver oils ,Beef liver, egg yolks, cheese and mushrooms.It is also synthesized endogenously when ultraviolet (UV) rays from sunlight strike the skin.

Vitamin D promotes calcium absorption in the gut and maintains adequate serum calcium and phosphate concentrations to enable normal bone mineralization and to prevent hypocalcemic tetany. Further it is needed for bone growth and bone remodeling by osteoblasts and osteoclasts and helps protect older adults from osteoporosis. Vitamin D deficiency can lead to thin and brittle bones leading rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults.

The study included 82 premenopausal and 79 postmenopausal women with a breast cancer diagnosis. They completed a food frequency questionnaire to assess their vitamin D and calcium intake. Microcalcifications presence was determined using pathology reports. Age-related lobular involution and percent breast density was also evaluated. The associations between quartiles of vitamin D and calcium intakes and the biomarkers of breast cancer risk were assessed using Multivariate generalized linear models.

The study led to the following findings:

• Increasing quartiles of vitamin D intake were inversely associated with the presence of microcalcifications (fourth quartile [Q4] prevalence ratio [PR] = 0.55) and breast density (Q4-Q1 = -7.7%) in postmenopausal women and positively associated with age-related lobular involution in women with microcalcifications (Q4 PR = 1.62).
• Increasing quartiles of calcium intake were inversely associated with microcalcifications among all (Q4 PR = 0.44), premenopausal (Q4 PR = 0.37), and postmenopausal women (Q4 PR = 0.38).
• It was also inversely associated with breast density in women without microcalcifications (Q4-Q1 = -8.3%) but positively associated with breast density in women with microcalcifications (Q4-Q1 = 10.0%).

"The findings indicate that the association between calcium and vitamin D intakes and breast cancer risk factors could be influenced by the presence of microcalcifications," the researchers wrote.

Reference:

Clemenceau, Alisson PhD1,2; Chang, Sue-Ling MSc2,3; Hanna, Mirette MD, PhD2,3; Durocher, Francine PhD1,2; Diorio, Caroline PhD2,3. Association between vitamin D and calcium intakes, breast microcalcifications, breast tissue age-related lobular involution and breast density. Menopause: October 11, 2022 - Volume - Issue - 10.1097/GME.0000000000002070 doi: 10.1097/GME.0000000000002070