Prostate cancer vitamin d

It has been hypothesized that vitamin D metabolites inhibit the development of prostate cancer. This hypothesis is compatible with the observation that certain populations at high risk for prostate cancer, including the elderly, African-Americans, and residents of northern latitudes, all tend to have reduced vitamin D levels. The hypothesis is also supported by a recent case-control study conducted among members of the Kaiser Permanente prepaid health plan in California, in which a strong inverse relationship was observed between elevated 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D levels in blood serum and subsequent risk of prostate cancer. However, a second epidemiological study, in Washington County, Maryland, could not replicate these findings.

This report describes the relationship between blood levels of vitamin D metabolites and prostate cancer risk in a third US population--the middle-aged to elderly men participating in the Physicians' Health Study (a large controlled trial of aspirin and [beta]-carotene). Plasma samples from this study population were collected and frozen in 1982-83. For this analysis, samples from 232 subjects who developed prostate cancer during 10 years of follow-up and 414 age-matched control participants were thawed and analyzed for vitamin D metabolites.

Median levels of total 25-hydroxyvitamin D, total 1,25-dihydroxyvitan-tin D, and the ratio of these metabolites did not differ between cases and controls. No significant relationships were seen, regardless of whether vitamin D metabolites were measured as total or free circulating hormone. The researchers observed no difference in vitamin D-binding protein levels between cases and controls.

The results of this study do not support the hypothesis of a strong relationship between blood levels of vitamin D metabobtes and prostate cancer.

Peter H Gann, Jing Ma, Charles H Hennekens, Bruce W Hollis, John G Haddad, and Meir J Stampfer, Circulating Vitamin D Metabolites in Relation to Subsequent Development of Prostate Cancer, Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Pevention 5(2).121-126 (Feb 1996) [Correspondence: Peter H Gann, Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Medical School, 680 North Lake Shore Dr, Suite 1102, Chicago IL 60611. Telephone (312) 908-8432; fax (312) 908-95881