Executive Summary

The National Institutes of Health awards Omaha, Neb.-based Creighton University $4 million to continue a "landmark" study linking vitamin D to reduced cancer risk. The original study, headed by Joan Lappe and reported in June 2007, showed for the first time in a clinical setting that postmenopausal women consuming calcium and vitamin D3 supplements at nearly three times the recommended levels could reduce the risk of cancer by 60-77 percent, the university says Jan. 26. "We must now confirm these findings with a clinical trial specifically designed to look at calcium, vitamin D and cancer," Lappe says. "Confirmation is necessary in order to have evidence solid enough to change public policy regarding intake levels for vitamin D." The four-year study begins in April and will follow 2,300 healthy, postmenopausal women from Nebraska