You’ve probably seen the recent headlines suggesting that vitamin D may decrease the risk of aggressive prostate cancer. You’re probably thinking: “Wasn’t it just a few months ago that the headlines said there was no link between vitamin D and prostate cancer? Which of those headlines is correct?” In this week’s issue of Health Tips From the Professor, I’m going to share the latest information on vitamin D status and prostate cancer risk – and help you untangle the conflicting headlines. Risk Factors for Prostate Cancer Vitamin D Deficiency? Dr Stephen Chaney Is vitamin D deficiency one of the risk factors for prostate cancer? What if something as simple as maintaining optimal vitamin D status could decrease your risk of prostate cancer? There is a lot of indirect evidence suggesting that vitamin D status might affect your risk of developing prostate cancer. For example: • Prostate cancer incidence and vitamin D deficiency parallel each other. Both are highest in northern latitudes, in African American men, and in older men. • Prostate cancer deaths are highest for patients diagnosed in the winter and at Northern latitudes. However, clinical studies looking at the correlation between 25-hydroxy vitamin D (the biologically active form of vitamin D in the blood) and prostate cancer incidence have been inconsistent. Because of this there has been considerable controversy in the scientific community as to whether or not there was any correlation between vitamin D status and prostate cancer. Vitamin D Deficiency And Prostate Cancer That’s what makes the recent headlines suggesting that vitamin D is associated with decreased risk of aggressive prostate cancer so interesting. Does this study show low vitamin D to be one of the risk factors for prostate cancer? Have the conflicting data on vitamin D status and prostate cancer finally been resolved or is this just another case of dueling headlines? Let’s start by looking at the study itself. This study (Murphy et al, Clinical Cancer Research, 20: 2289-2299, 2014) enrolled 667 men, aged 40-79 (average age = 62), from five urology clinics in Chicago over a four year period. These were all men who were undergoing their first prostate biopsy because of elevated serum PSA levels or an abnormal DRE (that’s doctor talk for digital rectal exam – the least favorite part of every guy’s physical exam). The clinics also drew blood and measured each patient’s 25-hydroxy vitamin D level at the time of the prostate biopsy. This study had a number of important strengths: • It was conducted at a northern latitude. Because of that 41.2% of the men in this study were vitamin D deficient (
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 13:13:40 +0000
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