As per a new study, a combination of three treatments has been shown to reduce a cumulative reduction of 61 per cent in cancer risk for healthy adults aged 70 and older. A mix of high doses of vitamin D, omega 3 fatty acids, and a simple home strength training program (SHEP) was studied by Dr. Heike Bischoff-Ferrari and her colleagues at the University Hospital Zurich.
This is the first study to test the combined benefit of three affordable public health interventions for the prevention of invasive cancers. Considered a major age-related disease in Europe and the US, cancer is the second leading cause of mortality in older adults and the chances of getting most cancers increases with age.
According to Dr. Heike, apart from preventive recommendations such as not smoking and sun protection, public health efforts that focus on cancer prevention are limited. She said, “Preventive efforts in middle-aged and older adults today are largely limited to screening and vaccination efforts.” Mechanistic studies have shown that vitamin D inhibits the growth of cancer cells. Similarly, omega-3 may inhibit the transformation of normal cells into cancer cells, and exercise has been shown to improve immune function and decrease inflammation, which may help in the prevention of cancer.
Dr. Heike and her colleagues wanted to fill these knowledge gaps by testing the effect of daily high-dose vitamin D3, daily supplemental omega-3s, and a simple home exercise program, alone and in combination, on the risk of invasive cancer among adults aged 70 or older.
Researchers conducted the DO-HEALTH trial in five European countries (Switzerland, France, Germany, Austria, and Portugal) with 2,157 participants. Bischoff-Ferrari said, “In DO-HEALTH, our aim was to test promising combined interventions for cancer prevention taking advantage of potentially small additive benefits from several public health strategies. In fact, novel cancer treatments aim to block multiple pathways for cancer development by combining several agents. We translate this concept into cancer prevention.”
Results show that all three treatments - vitamin D3, omega-3s and SHEP, and cumulative benefits on the risk of invasive cancers. Each of the treatments had a small individual benefit but when all three treatments were combined, the benefits became statistically significant, and the researchers saw an overall reduction in cancer risk by 61 per cent.
Dr. Heike said, “This is the first randomised controlled trial to show that the combination of daily vitamin D3, supplemental marine omega-3s, and a simple home exercise program may be effective in the prevention of invasive cancer among generally healthy and active adults age 70 and older.”
