Breast cancer rates are higher in higher latitudes

Breast cancer rates are higher in higher latitudes

Want to lower breast cancer risk? You might want to head toward the equator.

In the e-alert “Sunny Side of the Street” (12/22/03), I told you about 2002 research that found a clear association between low exposure to ultraviolet-B sunlight and a higher risk of mortality caused by 13 different types of cancer, including breast, lung, and pancreatic cancer.

That study helped establish a link between regular sunlight exposure and reduced cancer risk. The leader of that research, William B. Grant, Ph.D., is one of the authors of a more recent study that focused 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 latitudes furthest from the equator.

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 the e- Alert “Vitamin Daylight” (6/2/08).

Source:
“Link Between Vitamin D Status and Breast Cancer Illuminated” Science Daily, 5/15/08, sciencedaily.com