A Trial of Calcium and Vitamin D for the Prevention of Colorectal Adenomas.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

Who Took Part

The study group was 2259 participants.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

The researchers recruited patients with recently diagnosed adenomas and no known colorectal polyps remaining after complete colonoscopy.

Women could elect to receive calcium plus random assignment to vitamin D or placebo.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

As a double-blind Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group a baseline to be compared against.

Follow-up colonoscopy was anticipated to be performed 3 or 5 years after the baseline examinations, according to the endoscopist's recommendation.

The primary end point was adenomas diagnosed in the interval from randomization through the anticipated surveillance colonoscopy.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Adenoma, Calcium, Colorectal Neoplasms, Dietary Supplements, Risk, Treatment Failure and Vitamin D.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 2259 participants.

With several hundred people or more, it is a fairly large study for this kind of research.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 7 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2015 (The New England journal of medicine), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.