Richard Martin and his team observed association between vitamin D and more aggressive cancers, which indicates the potential role for vitamin D manipulation to control the progression of prostate cancer
Association of circulating vitamin D metabolite levels with incidence and progression of screen-detected prostate cancer.
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Knowledge about potentially effective interventions for the primary (prevention of disease occurrence) or tertiary (halting or slowing disease progression and recurrence) prevention of prostate cancer is limited. It has been suggested that men with higher intakes or circulating levels of vitamin D may have a reduced risk of prostate cancer, but the evidence-base is limited and inconclusive.
Previous studies have typically been small, relied on retrospective recall of diet and case or control selection has not been standardised or population-based, so may be prone to selection bias (e.g. latent cancers are often not excluded amongst control men, or associations of risk factors with prostate cancer may reflect factors associated with referral for biopsy). Few studies have investigated associations of circulating vitamin D or measures of sun exposure, the most important determinant of vitamin D status, with prostate cancer prevalence or progression.
Thus the potential effects of modifying circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH)2D) levels via sun exposure, supplements or changes in diet are uncertain. Robust evidence indicating whether vitamin D really lowers prostate cancer risk could inform the development of interventions aimed at primary or tertiary prevention.
This project investigated whether measures of life-course sun exposure, circulating 25(OH)D and circulating 1,25(OH)2D are inversely associated with prostate cancer and, in particular, with more aggressive prostate cancers.
To set our findings within the context of the current body of evidence we conducted systematic reviews and meta-analyses examining associations of prostate cancer with four indicators of vitamin D status: circulating 25(OH)D; circulating 1,25(OH)2D; sun exposure; and dietary intake. We then conducted a population-based nested case-control study in men who received prostate specific antigen (PSA) tests within a randomised controlled trial of treatments for prostate cancer.
We investigated associations of life-course sun exposure (n=1,020 prostate cancer cases; 5,044 healthy controls), circulating 25(OH)D (n=1,447 cases; 1,449 controls) and 1,25(OH)2D (n=1282 cases; 1290 controls) with prostate cancer risk.
We investigated associations of 25(OH)D and 1,25(OH)2D with PSA-defined progression in men undergoing active monitoring for localised prostate cancer (n=490).
We additionally investigated whether single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) involved in the vitamin D pathway are associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer, and whether SNPs that predict pigmentation traits reflecting sun exposure (tanning, skin colour, freckling) are associated with prostate cancer risk.
Associations were quantified by stage (advanced vs localised) and Gleason grade (high-grade (≥7) vs. low-grade (<7).
These results strengthen the evidence that high 25(OH)D may protect against more aggressive prostate cancer. There was no evidence of an association with overall prostate cancer risk, or of an effect of 1,25(OH)2D. The observed association between vitamin D and more aggressive cancers indicates the potential role for vitamin D manipulation to control the progression of prostate cancer.
Vitamin D is protective against prostate cancer, in particular more aggressive types of prostate cancer.
Every year, over 220,000 men die worldwide from prostate cancer, but there are no means of primary prevention. A number of studies have suggested that vitamin D is protective against prostate cancer, since vitamin D regulates the growth and differentiation of tumour cells.
If this suggestion is true, then this could have implications for the primary prevention of prostate cancer, since vitamin D levels are potentially modifiable by changes in diet, vitamin supplementation or safe sun exposure.
We carried out a systematic review of the published literature up to October 2010 to investigate associations of dietary intake and blood levels of vitamin D with prostate cancer risk that have been reported to date.
We investigated associations of sun exposure (the main source of vitamin D) and circulating concentrations of vitamin D with prostate cancer in a large study involving up to 1,447 men with prostate cancer and 1,449 matched controls (men without prostate cancer) identified within a UK-wide cohort study.
We investigated whether PSA level increased (a marker of prostate cancer progression) at a higher rate in men who had low vitamin D than in men with high vitamin D.
We investigated whether genetic variation in genes related to vitamin D level were associated with prostate cancer risk. We used the data on circulating concentrations of vitamin D that we measured on the controls to develop a score which could be used to predict a man’s vitamin D level.
We found that studies to date report no strong evidence of an association of vitamin D exposure with prostate cancer risk, although there were too few well conducted and large studies to allow firm conclusions.
We found weak evidence to support the hypothesis that increased exposure to sunlight may reduce prostate cancer risk. We found that men with very low levels of vitamin D (8% of men) had an approximately two-fold increased risk of being diagnosed with more aggressive (rather than localised) prostate cancers, although there was no evidence of an overall increased risk of any type of prostate cancer.
We did not find that vitamin D was associated with biochemical progression in men with prostate cancer on active surveillance. We found that variations in one gene related to vitamin D level were associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer in men with deficient vitamin D levels.
Men who tended to burn (rather than tan) were more likely to have lower circulating vitamin D and to have prostate cancer. We found that higher circulating concentrations of vitamin D are related to: increased age, summer months, no family history of prostate cancer, not being obese, physical activity, smoking, blood pressure, dietary intake of dairy products, less intake of retinol, multivitamin and fish oil supplements, sun exposure and tendency to burn.
This work is important as it gives clues as to how to modify vitamin D, which we have shown may be an important risk factor for more aggressive cancer.
