London, April 20 (IANS) Taking multivitamin tablets may help reduce the risk of breast cancer, a new study claims.

Women who took regular doses of vitamin pills saw their chance of suffering from the disease fall by as much as 40 percent, reports express.co.uk.

The authors believe the study provides early evidence that along with other important lifestyle factors, such as reducing alcohol intake, doing exercise and keeping slim, vitamin pills could help to reduce a woman's chance of suffering from the disease.

Recent improvements in early diagnosis and better drug treatments have meant most women will survive for at least five to 10 years. As survival rates have soared, experts have turned their focus to prevention.

However, the issue of vitamin pills in cancer prevention has remained controversial after a few studies have shown that people who take high doses of vitamin pills each day may saturate their body and actually increase the risk of cancer.

Now a team from Puerto Rico has said it has found evidence that vitamin pills might help reduce the risk of breast cancer.

"It is not an immediate effect. You don't take a vitamin today and your breast cancer risk is reduced tomorrow. However, we did see a long-term effect in terms of breast cancer reduction," said Jaime Matta who headed the study.

The researchers also believe that vitamin pills could actively help the body to repair damaged DNA and therefore fight off cancer.