X-Message-Number: 29171
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2007 18:23:18 -0500
From: Jonano <>
Subject: Vitamin regime lowers baby cancer risk: Study

Source: http://www.thestar.com/News/article/184498

Fortified with folic acid, lowers risk by nearly 50%, Sick Kids' survey shows

Feb 22, 2007 04:30 AM
Joseph Hall
health reporter

Simply taking multivitamins and folic acid during pregnancy can help a
mother reduce her baby's risk of developing the most common childhood
cancers by almost 50 per cent, a new study from Toronto's Hospital for
Sick Children says.

The research, which analyzed data from seven international studies
that involved thousands of children, should encourage more mothers to
take prenatal vitamins, says Dr. Gideon Koren, the study's principal
investigator.

"That's why we are so excited," says Koren, director of the Motherisk
program at the hospital and a professor of pediatrics at the
University of Toronto.

The study found a multivitamin regime fortified with folic acid, a
member of the B-complex group of vitamins, lowered the chance a child
would develop a brain tumour by 27 per cent, leukemia by 39 per cent
and neuroblastoma by 49 per cent. It was published yesterday in the
journal Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

For 15 years it has been common knowledge that the risk of spina
bifida, a malformation of the spine, can be reduced by as much as 80
per cent when mothers take folic acid prior to and during pregnancy.

Even so, Koren says only 40 per cent of Canadian mothers bother to
take the nutrient, which costs pennies a day.

Most prenatal supplements supply between 600 and 1,000 micrograms of
folic acid. While a diet rich in folic acid (found naturally in dark
green vegetables, beans, citrus fruit and berries, as well as
fortified bread and cereal) would likely provide the recommended daily
allowance of 400 micrograms a day, a supplement is still recommended
for pregnant women.

Jana Atkins doesn't need any urging.

The Toronto woman began taking folic acid and vitamins before her
first pregnancy, now in its 35th week, to prevent spina bifida.

"Maybe many people haven't heard of spina bifida, whereas cancer is a
catch-all phrase and it's a disease that we're all well aware of,"
says the 32-year-old psychologist-in-training.

The study grew out of an observation by oncologists at Sick Kids who
noticed the number of neuroblastomas began to drop substantially about
five years ago. A devastating cancer of the peripheral nervous system,
the disease affects about one in every 6,500 children under five years
in North America.

The only link Koren and colleagues could suggest was a Health Canada
edict that forced flour manufacturers to add folic acid to their
products in 1998.

A subsequent study, published by Koren three years ago, showed
neuroblastoma had substantially decreased in Ontario after the
fortified flour was introduced.

While the Ontario study focused on neuroblastomas, the international
studies also looked at leukemia and brain tumours.

Since some studies included both multivitamins and folic acid, there
is some doubt as to which supplement is tied to the cancer protection.

"To our amazement and surprise, all available studies today from
different parts of the world ... showed a similar trend (to the one in
Ontario)," Koren says.

Koren says folic acid, instrumental in the body's DNA repair
mechanisms, is likely at play because damaged DNA is a key contributor
to tumour development, though he did not rule out the role played by
other vitamins   including A, the B series, C, D, E as well as iron.

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