Researchers trying to prevent bone loss in women with cirrhosis of the liver have made an unexpected yet welcome discovery -- that vitamin K may help prevent liver cancer in those most at risk of the disease.The study, which appears in the July 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, was originally designed to assess the effects of vitamin K supplementation on bone loss in women with viral cirrhosis of the liver. However, at the end of the study, the researchers realized the women who took the vitamin K had significantly lower rates of liver cancer."The results suggest a possible role for vitamin K2 in the prevention of liver cancer in women with viral cirrhosis,” said study co-author Dr. Susumu Shiomi, a professor of nuclear medicine at the Graduate School of Medicine at Osaka City University in Japan. Shiomi added that “vitamin K2 is cheap and safe to use."Dr. Jay Brooks, chief of hematology/oncology at Ochsner Clinic Foundation Hospital in New Orleans, explained that people with viral cirrhosis from diseases such as hepatitis C are at an increased risk of developing liver cancer. While researchers still don’t know why, Brooks said, “we do know that they run an incredibly increased risk.” And, he said, the problem will likely only increase because hepatitis C is being diagnosed in more people.
