Background and aims Reduced vitamin D levels may play a significant role in the development of fractures and musculoskeletal pains reported in patients on aromatase inhibitors (AIs) for breast cancer. In this study, we evaluated the vitamin D status in postmenopausal women with non-metastatic breast cancer who were about to start AI therapy. Methods This study was conducted on community dwelling postmenopausal subjects, aged 35–80 years, with early non-metastatic breast cancer (up to stage IIIA), who were about to start therapy using third generation AIs. Symptoms of joint and muscle pains were obtained using a modified Leuven menopausal questionnaire. 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] was evaluated by radioimmunoassy while bone mineral density (BMD) of the lumbar spine and the proximal femur by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) Results Of the 145 participants (mean age = 60.96 ± 0.88 years), 63/145 (43.5%) had baseline levels of 25(OH)D of < 20 ng/ml (deficient), 50/145 (34.5%) had levels between 20–29 ng/ml (insufficient), and only 32/145 (22%) had > 30 ng/ml (sufficient); thus, 113/145 (78%) had low 25(OH)D levels (i.e. < 30ng/ml). Arthralgias and myalgias were found in 61.3% and 43% of patients, respectively; and of those, 83.3% and 88.1% had 25(OH)D of < 30ng/ml, respectively. Conclusions Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency is high in breast cancer women and this may increase the risk of bone loss and fractures in those who are going to start AIs. Moreover, musculoskeletal pains are common in breast cancer women, even before the initiation of AIs and in association with low vitamin D in the majority. Future studies may be needed to establish the contribution of low vitamin D, if any, on the prevalence of musculoskeletal pains in women on AIs.

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Inspired by experimental data, this paper investigates which isogeny classes of abelian varieties defined over a finite field of odd characteristic contain the Jacobian of a hyperelliptic curve. We provide a necessary condition by demonstrating that the Weil polynomial of a hyperelliptic Jacobian must have a particular form modulo 2. For fixed g ≥ 1, the proportion of isogeny classes of g dimensional abelian varieties defined over F q which fail this condition is 1 − Q(2g + 2)/2 g as q → ∞ ranges over odd prime powers, where Q(n) denotes the number of partitions of n into odd parts.

Inspired by experimental data, we investigate which isogeny classes of abelian varieties defined over a finite field of odd characteristic contain the Jacobian of a hyperelliptic curve. We provide a necessary condition by demonstrating that the Weil polynomial of a hyperelliptic Jacobian must have a particular form modulo 2. For fixed g ≥ 1, the proportion of isogeny classes of g-dimensional abelian varieties defined over F q which fail this condition is 1 − Q(2g + 2)/2 g as q → ∞ ranges over odd prime powers, where Q(n) denotes the number of partitions of n into odd parts.

No abstract