Vitamin D regulates estrogen synthesis among other mechanisms involved in breast cancer (BC) development; however, no evidence has been found regarding its relationship with DNA repair capacity (DRC). Therefore, the objective of this study was to elucidate whether DRC levels are linked with plasma 25(OH)D levels. BC cases and controls were selected from our BC cohort. DRC levels were assessed in lymphocytes through the host-cell reactivation assay. 25(OH)D levels were measured using the UniCel DxI 600 Access Immunoassay System. BC cases (n = 91) showed higher 25(OH)D levels than the controls (n = 92) (p = 0.001). When stratifying BC cases and controls into low and high DRC categories, BC cases with low DRC (n = 74) had the highest 25(OH)D levels (p = 0.0001). A positive correlation between 25(OH)D and DRC levels was found for the controls (r = 0.215, p = 0.043) while a negative correlation was found for BC cases (r = -0.236, p = 0.026). Significant differences in 25(OH)D levels were observed when stratifying by molecular subtypes (p = 0.0025). Our study provides evidence of a link between 25(OH)D and DRC in BC along with a description of to how 25(OH)D levels vary across subtypes. The positive correlation observed in the control group suggests that 25(OH)D contributes differently to DRC levels once the malignancy is developed.
Keywords: DNA repair capacity; breast cancer; host-cell reaction assay; molecular subtypes; nucleotide excision repair; plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D); vitamin D.