EditorAfter a patient has colonic polyps it would be great to be able to offer a way for that patient to reduce his or her risk of developing future polyps or colorectal cancer. Unfortunately, this trial shows that taking vitamin D or calcium is probably not very useful in this setting,” said Dr. Dennis Ahnen, an investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and co-author of the study. The study dealt with people who belonged to the age group of 45 to 75 years and had colonic polyps removed and no remaining polyps when they enrolled for the study. After going through the tests, the participants agreed to take a daily dose of vitamin D or calcium or both. In addition to this, all the participants had follow up colonoscopies three to five years later. At that time, about 43 per cent of them showed additional polyps. This percentage did not differ significantly from a control group of patients who did not take the daily supplements.
The earlier studies that led people to believe that vitamin and calcium supplements help to reduce colon cancer risks were conducted in labs or were quite small in scale. These studies on a smaller scale had shown promise that higher calcium intake could help prevent colorectal cancer. Dr. Ahnen stressed the importance of studies and said that in addition to knowing what works, it’s important to know what doesn’t work. This is one way we can both move on researching additional, promising strategies and also avoid prescribing treatments that have no effect on the disease.
Ahnen stressed the fact that researchers will try to figure out whether any factor, such as obesity rates in the new group of patients, could account for different results. It is also very likely that the disappointing outcome in this case probably will turn researchers to other opportunities that might prove to be useful.
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Editorial Staff
Zainab Asif
