Monday March 7, 2016 (foodconsumer.org) -- Dr. Shuji Ogino from Harvard Medical School and colleagues conducted a study and found vitamin D is protective against colorectal cancer.

The case-control study published in Gut found high plasma 25(OH)D was associated with 90% reduced risk of colorectal cancer in those who had high levels of intratumoural periglandular reaction, but not those with lower level reaction.

According to the study report, immune cells in tumor tissue can convert 25 hydroxyvitamin D [259OH)D] to bioactive vitamin D called 1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, which influences both cancer and immune cells.

Previous studies have already suggested that vitamin D deficiency can increase risk of colorectal cancer and many other types of malignancies.

Mingyang Song, Reiko Nishihara, Molin Wang, Andrew T Chan, Zhi Rong Qian, Kentaro Inamura, Xuehong Zhang, Kimmie Ng, Sun A Kim, Kosuke Mima, Yasutaka Sukawa, Katsuhiko Nosho, Charles S Fuchs, Edward L Giovannucci, Kana Wu, Shuji Ogino, Plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D and colorectal cancer risk according to tumour immunity status, Gut 2016;65:296-304 doi:10.1136/gutjnl-2014-308852