ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Local researchers find Vitamin D holds promise in battling a deadly type of breast cancer.

While it is still early, St. Louis University School of Medicine researcher Dr. Susana Gonzalo says it appears Vitamin D may be a new therapy to treat an often deadly and treatment resistant form of the disease known as triple negative breast cancer.

“We need to do some clinical trials to try to combine Vitamin D with other current therapies and then we would expect to see a benefit in terms of reduction of cancer growth and also in the effectiveness of other treatments,” Gonzalo explained.

Gonzalo’s team has also discovered a set of three biomarkers than can help to identify patients who could benefit from this new treatment.

The new research was funded in part by a $500,000 Department of Defense grant.