Levels of Serum 25-Hydroxy Vitamin D in Benign and Malignant Breast Disease Patients: An Observational Study

TL;DR

This study found that breast cancer patients had significantly lower vitamin D levels compared to those with benign breast disease, suggesting a potential link between vitamin D deficiency and breast cancer.

Contribution

The study provides new observational evidence linking low serum vitamin D levels specifically to malignant breast disease.

Findings

43.5% of patients had normal vitamin D levels, 40.0% had insufficiency, and 16.5% had deficiency.

Breast cancer patients had significantly lower vitamin D levels than those with benign breast disease (p-value <0.001).

Abstract

Introduction: Vitamin D deficiency is the foremost underdiagnosed and under-treated nutritional deficiency in the world. This vitamin deficiency has reached pandemic proportions despite being synthesized in the human body under sun exposure. Vitamin D plays a significant role in the maintenance of reproductive health and physiology in the human body. Its deficiency has been studied extensively in correlation with breast diseases and has been implicated as a risk factor for breast cancer by many. Thus, we undertook this study on patients with benign or malignant breast disease to assess the levels of vitamin D in the blood.

Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted at a tertiary care center in central India. All adult female patients who were admitted to the Department of Surgery with breast disease from January 2023 to June 2024 were included in the study. Exclusion criteria were women who had taken vitamin D supplementation in the previous two years, those with pre-existing vitamin D deficiency, or those who took therapy for osteopenia or osteoporosis. Patients finally included in the study were tested for serum vitamin D levels, estimated by the chemiluminescence method.

Results: Out of 85 patients with benign or malignant breast diseases, 37 (43.5%) patients had normal vitamin D levels, 34 (40.0%) had vitamin D insufficiency, and 14 (16.5 %) had vitamin D deficiency. Sixty-nine (81.17%) patients had benign breast disease and 16 (18.83%) had breast cancer. As compared with benign breast disease patients, those with malignant breast disease had significantly low serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels (p-value <0.001).

Conclusion: The significant difference in mean 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels between benign breast disease and breast carcinoma patients favors the recommendation that vitamin D supplementation may eliminate a potential risk factor in breast cancer development, though larger sized studies and randomized trials are needed to establish a definite clinical correlation. While considering vitamin D supplementation, its non-skeletal effects should be taken into account more than the skeletal effects.