Low Levels of Vitamin D in a Cohort of Women with Impalpable Breast Lesions from Rio de Janeiro/Brazil

BACKGROUND: Low levels of vitamin D have been described as a risk factor for the development of breast cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the serum levels of vitamin D (25OHD) in patients with impalpable breast lesions comparing with a control group. METHODS: Vitamin D quantification (25OHD) was assessed in the plasma of 65 patients with impalpable breast lesions and from 20 health controls using a chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay. Pearson’s chi-square test and nonparametric t-Student were used to evaluate statistical significance between the clinical variables and the means of quantification of vitamin D. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the correlation between age and vitamin sufficiency for the cases and the controls. RESULTS: The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and/or insufficiency in women with malignant lesions was 84% and 60% for the control group. Using the chi-square or Fisher’s exact test, the relationship between vitamin D levels and age presented significant association only for the control group (P=0.002). Using ROC curve, the plot area (0.778) for the control group defined a cut-off value of 45 years to age, with specificity and sensitivity of 60% and 50%, respectively. Thus, the odds ratio for vitamin D insufficiency in women over 45 years was 1.37 (P=0.011). For the case group, clinical characteristics, histological grade, and lymph node involvement did not show any significant association. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency is high in women with impalpable breast lesions, as well as in the control group, even in a tropical city. According to the results the age advancement may be involved with the decrease in vitamin D levels in plasma, but there was no statistical association between low levels of Vitamin D and breast cancer.