If you're taking aromatase inhibitors after having treatment for estrogen-sensitive breast cancer, you may want to add some Vitamin D to your pill stash.? Many aromatase inhibitors contribute to the progress of osteoporosis - bone loss - as well as preventing a recurrence of breast cancer.? A small study done with 156 postmenopausal women found that patients who took Vitamin D or D3 as well as calcium while taking Aromasin, Arimidex, or Femara had less bone density loss than patients who did not use Vitamin D or bisphosphonate drugs (Fosamax, Evista).
"The bone loss was less, the higher your vitamin D level was maintained," said researcher Dr. Thomas J. Smith of Massey Cancer Center at Virginia Commonwealth University. "This is one of the first intervention studies," Smith said. "And the results are pretty striking." Dr. Smith worked with Dr. Sonia Servitja of Hospital del Mar in Barcelona, Spain to monitor Vitamin D concentrations and bone loss.? The women in the study were evaluated at the beginning of their aromatase inhibitor therapy, and again at three months and at the one-year mark.
Breast cancer patients who took Vitamin D in doses larger than 400 to 800 IU/day had less bone loss than the average patient on aromatase inhibitors.? Higher doses of Vitamin D, taken with calcium (1 g) resulted in better bone health.? Drs. Smith and Servitja presented the results of their study at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting.
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