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Vitamin D For Cancer Prevention

Theories linking vitamin D to certain cancers have been tested and confirmed in more than 200 epidemiological studies, and understanding of its physiological basis stems from more than 2,500 laboratory studies, according to epidemiologist Cedric Garland, Dr PH, professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of California.

Dr. Garland led one of the latest studies on vitamin D for cancer prevention and his results, which were published in the Annals of Epidemiology (2009: 19), he states that higher vitamin D levels could help to prevent many types of cancers i.e. colon, breast, ovarian, renal, pancreatic, aggressive prostate and other cancers. The researchers also projected that by raising the vitamin D intake to 2,000 IU/ day, it would lead to a 25% reduction in incidence of breast cancer and 27% reduction in incidence of colorectal cancer. Furthermore, they expect that such intakes would reduce case-fatality rates of patients who have breast, colorectal or prostate cancer by half. Another large-scale, randomized, placebo-controlled study by Lappe et al. (2007) on vitamin D and cancer showed that vitamin D can cut overall cancer risk by as much as 60 percent.

Ecologocial studies by Grant et al. (2009) found that people with a lower level of vitamin D in their blood are at an elevated risk of developing as many as 18 different types of cancer (incl. some of the most common ones such as colon and breast cancer). Other research has found that those diagnosed with cancer in summer and fall – when blood levels of the vitamin are at seasonal highs because of sun exposure – have longer survival times than people whose cancers are detected in winter and spring.

References:
Garland Cedric F., Gorham E., Mohr S. and F. Garland (2009), Vitamin D for Cancer Prevention: Global Perspective in Annals of Epidemiology, 2009; 19: 468-483.

Lappe JM, Travers-Gustafson D, Davies KM, Recker RR, Heaney RP. Vitamin D and Calcium supplementation reduces cancer risk: results of a randomized trial. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2007; 85:1586-91.

Grant William B and Sharif B. Mohr: Ecological Studies of Ultraviolet B, Vitamin D and Cancer Since 2000 in Annals of Epidemiology, 2009; 19: 446-454.