Breast cancer rates are higher in higher Want to lower breast cancer risk? Move south. In the e-alert "Sunny Side of the Street" (12/22/03), I told you about a 2002 study in which researcher William B. Grant, Ph.D., compared sunlight ultraviolet-B data with cancer mortality rates in the U.S. Dr. Grant found a clear association between low UV-B radiation exposure and a higher risk of mortality caused by 13 different types of cancer, including breast, lung, and pancreatic cancer. Dr. Grant's work helped establish the link between regular sunlight exposure and reduced cancer risk due to vitamin D metabolism in the skin prompted by UV-B exposure. Six years later, Dr. Grant is one of the authors of a new study that focuses on worldwide breast cancer rates. Dr. Grant and his team used a new data-gathering tool called GLOBOCAN that tracks cancer statistics in 175 countries. When the researchers mapped incidences of breast cancer by location, Dr. Grant's earlier work was confirmed on a global scale: Breast cancer rates were highest at the highest latitudes in both the northern and southern hemispheres. One of Dr. Grant's colleagues told Science Daily: "Even after controlling for known variables such as meat, vegetable and alcohol intake, cigarette consumption, weight, fertility and others, the inverse association of modeled vitamin D status with breast cancer incidence remained strong." You can read more about the vitamin D connection to breast cancer prevention in this past Monday's e-Alert "Vitamin Daylight" (6/2/08). Source:
"Link Between Vitamin D Status and Breast Cancer Illuminated" Science Daily, 5/15/08, sciencedaily.com | 
