Research Article Vitamin D Levels in Subjects with Prostate Cancer Compared to Age-Matched Controls

Copyright © 2012 Subhashini Yaturu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most common cancer in men worldwide and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in men in the United States. Vitamin D is considered to have anticancer properties, currently thought to work mainly through its nuclear receptor or vitamin D receptor. In this retrospective study, we compared vitamin D levels in subjects with PCa with those of age-matched men without PCa. Study subjects included 479 in each group with a mean age of 73 and a mean creatinine of 1.05 and 1.15. Levels of 25 (OH) vitamin D were 28.4 ± 0.54 and 28.05 ± 0.62 in subjects with and without PCa. Levels of 1,25 (OH) vitamin D were 47.2 ± 6.8 and 47.1 ± 7.11 in subjects with and without PCa. In contrast to other studies, we did not find a significant difference in vitamin D levels. Among prostate cancer patients, vitamin D levels correlated positively with age (r = 0.12, P < 0.02), and were negatively associated with BMI (r = −0.13, P = 0.003), glucose (r = −0.12, P < 0.007), HbA1C (r = −0.16, P = 0.001), and PTH (r = −0.21; P < 0.0001). The data do not show the causal effect of vitamin D levels on PCa. 1