Vit D concentration associated with reduced risk of cancer

(HealthDay)—Higher plasma concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D is associated with reduced risk of total cancer in a Japanese population, according to a study published online March 7 in The BMJ.

Sanjeev Budhathoki, M.D., from the National Cancer Center in Tokyo, and colleagues examined the correlation between pre-diagnostic circulating vitamin D concentration and the risk of cancer. They performed a nested case-cohort study in which a total of 3,301 incident cases of cancer and 4,044 randomly selected subcohort participants within the Japan Public Health Center-based Prospective Study cohort were included.

The researchers found that there was an inverse correlation for plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration with the risk of total cancer, with multivariable adjusted hazard ratios of 0.81 (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.7 to 0.94), 0.75 (95 percent CI, 0.65 to 0.87), and 0.78 (95 percent CI, 0.67 to 0.91) for the second to fourth quarters versus the lowest quarter, respectively (P for trend = 0.001). There was also an inverse correlation for liver cancer, with corresponding hazard ratios of 0.7 (95 percent CI, 0.44 to 1.13), 0.65 (95 percent CI, 0.40 to 1.06), and 0.45 (95 percent CI, 0.26 to 0.79) (P for trend = 0.006). The overall hazard ratios were not substantially altered by removing cases of cancer at one specific site from total cancer cases.

"These findings support the hypothesis that vitamin D has protective effects against cancers at many sites," the authors write.

Fujirebio Inc. played a role in measurement of plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D.

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