Multivitamins Can Cut Cancer Risk for Kids, Study Shows

Toronto Globe and Mail
March, 2007

Women who take a daily multivitamin before and during pregnancy sharply reduce the likelihood that their children will develop leukemia, brain tumors and other forms of childhood cancer, according to new Canadian research.

The startling finding that a supplement purchased can prevent cancer as well as a range of birth defects adds weight to the theory that micronutrients have lifelong health benefits for the developing fetus. It also bolsters the case for having all women of childbearing age take multivitamins, particularly those rich in folic acid.

“This is almost too simple an idea for people to take seriously, but they6 should take it seriously,” said Dr. Gideon Koren, director of the Motherisk program at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

“Proper nutrition-and that includes a daily prenatal multivitamin-can prevent a large proportion of childhood caner.”

The new research, published in the medical journal Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, found that children born of mothers who took a daily multiple vitamin containing folic acid had a 47 percent lower risk for neuroblastoma (the most deadly form of childhood cancer), a 39 percent lower risk for leukemia (the most common form of pediatric cancer) and a 27 percent lower risk for brain tumors.

The study is a meta-analysis of a compilation and analysis of previously published studies.