Vitamin D could help protect women against ovarian cancer

By Mark Waghorn via SWNS

Vitamin D could protect women against ovarian cancer, according to new research.

Experiments on patient tumors showed the 'sunshine vitamin', vitamin D, blocks a protein that fuels the deadly disease.

Ovarian cancer has been dubbed "the silent killer" as it often causes few distinct symptoms until it is advanced.

Nine-in-ten women with early-stage disease survive. If it's picked up late just one in ten live more than five years.

Results of the study were confirmed in cells grown in the lab.

Epidemiological evidence has linked lower levels of the nutrient to a higher risk of the disease. Taking vitamin D pills is also associated with reduced death rates.

Now scientists in Japan have found that the vitamin restores the body's natural barrier against ovarian cancer.

It stops a process called 'peritoneal spread' where cells detach from the ovary and travel to the diaphragm, turning 'mesothelial' cells cancerous.

These cells have been likened to a pavement, forming a protective wall around the body's internal cavities and organs.

First author Dr. Kazuhisa Kitami, of Nagoya University, said: "We showed the potential of vitamin D for normalizing cancer-associated mesothelial cells. It's the first study of this kind.

"The most interesting point is in situations where early detection of ovarian cancer is still extremely difficult, we showed the peritoneal environment can be restored to its normal state where it prevents the adhesion and growth of cancer cells."

Ovarian cancer has one of the highest death rates of all cancers - partly because it turns the body’s defenses against itself.

Vitamin D effectively stops this key pathway in its tracks. People are advised to consider taking supplements over winter to improve general health.

Tumors grow by secreting a molecule called TGF-β1 - which increases amounts of another protein thrombospondin-1. It's been named the TGF-β/Smad pathway.

Thrombospondin-1 is rife in the later, more deadly stages of cancer. In ovarian cancer, it boosts the adhesion and proliferation of cells to the peritoneum.

Vitamin D disrupts the TGF-β/Smad pathway and may prevent cancer, explained Dr. Kitami.

He said: "The administration of vitamin D helps normalize the peritoneal environment.

"This suggests the combination of vitamin D and conventional remedies can enhance their therapeutic efficacy for ovarian cancer.

"We think this helps prevent the adhesion of cancer cells to the peritoneum - which may make it possible to prevent the recurrence of ovarian cancer."

The researchers described the potential of a simple vitamin combating a cancer that affects one in 75 women as an "exciting prospect."

It could lead to the development of natural therapies that cure - and even prevent -one of the most lethal forms of the disease.

Each year about 19,880 women will receive a new diagnosis of ovarian cancer in the US. About 12,810 women will die from it.

Currently only around a third of women are diagnosed early with the majority only spotted at later stages.

The study is in the journal Matrix Biology.