SUNDAY October 21, 2007 (Foodconsumer.org) -- A new Australian animal model study showed that calcium deficiency due to low dietary intake or vitamin D deficiency increases the rate of calcium absorption back into the bone, promoting breast cancer tumor growth in bone, Reuters reported on October 19.

In the study led by Dr. Colin R. Dunstan of the ANZAC Research Institute in Concord and colleagues, the mice received breast cancer cells and were fed either a low calcium diet or a diet with a normal level of calcium.

The mice fed a diet containing only 0.1 percent calcium showed signs of higher bone turnover than the animals fed a diet with a normal level of calcium, 0.6 percent, the researchers reported.

In addition, the researchers found by day 17 that the mice receiving the low-calcium diet experienced a 43-percent more bone destruction, a 24-percent increased tumor area, and a 24-percent more cancer cell proliferation compared to animals receiving the normal diet.

Nevertheless, the low calcium effects can be neutralized by treatment of a drug known as osteprotegerin.   Specifically, the drug can counteract the absorption of calcium back into the bone; inhibit bone destruction; reduce tumor area; decrease breast cancer cell proliferation; and increase apoptosis of cancer cells.

The results are published in the October 1, 2007 issue of journal Cancer Research.

A scientist affiliated with foodconsumer.org suggested that calcium can neutralize the acids accumulated in breast cancer patients and help make the body physiology normal again.   An acidic pH, found in most cancer patients, promotes cancer.   And vitamin D is also known to help fight breast cancer.