The Vitamin D Council, a nonprofit educational corporation based in California, launched their “Vitamin D and Cancer” campaign, presenting 20 detailed summaries of the evidence on the role of vitamin D in preventing cancer. The summaries can be found under the “Health conditions” tab on the Vitamin D Council website (http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health-conditions/cancer/). The Vitamin D Council hopes the campaign will spread more awareness about the importance of vitamin D sufficiency and the dangers of vitamin D deficiency. Some vitamin D and cancer facts that are presented in the summaries include: 1) many studies have found solar ultraviolet-B (UVB) and vitamin D associated with reduced risk of breast, colon, and rectal cancer; 2) randomized controlled trial with 1100 IU/ day vitamin D3 plus 1450 mg/day calcium found a 77% reduction in all-cancer incidence; 3) geographical studies have found reduced risk in mortality rates for 20 types of cancer in regions of higher solar UVB doses; 4) observational studies have found that the risk of breast, colon, and rectal cancer fall as vitamin D blood levels rise at least up to 40 ng/mL (100 nmol/L); 5) those who develop nonmelanoma skin cancer may have produced enough vitamin D to reduce their risk of internal cancers; 6) those with higher vitamin D blood levels at time of cancer diagnosis had nearly twice the survival rate of those with the lowest levels; and 7) higher UVB exposure early in life has been found associated with reduced risk of breast and prostate cancer.
