Vitamins, Carotenoids and its association with Beneficial Effect in Preventing Breast Cancer

Catarina Maria Nogueira De Oliveira Sediyama, Manoela Maciel dos Santos Dias, Luis Fernando de Sousa Moraes, Camilla Atsumi Zanuncio Sediyama-Bhering, Silvia Eloisa Priore, Sylvia do Carmo Castro Franceschini, Maria do Carmo Gouveia Peluzio

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women. Vitamins have been highlighted in numerous studies for its antioxidant properties and its influence on cell physiology, which suggest its potential on tumor prevention. This review aims to verify the effects of intake and/or supplementation of vitamins A, C, D and E in breast cancer prevention. The search was performed in PubMed. For this review, a search was performed using several pre-defined keyword combinations and their equivalents: "Vitamin A", "Carotenoids", "Ascorbic Acid", "Vitamin E", "Tocopherols", "Vitamin D". It was included Clinical Trials, Randomized Controlled Trials, Reviews and Systematic Reviews between January 2002 and December 2014, with women older than 18 years. Initially, 85 studies were identified. However, only twenty five were eligible. It has been demonstrated that vitamin D can reduce the risk of breast cancer in women, as well as vitamin E. Carotenoids and vitamin C might provide beneficial effects in subgroups like premenopausal and postmenopausal women respectively, being influenced by the menopausal status.