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# Could vitamin D prevent colorectal cancer?
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/vitamin_d_prevent_colorectal_cancer_0602160600/
- Published: 2016-06-02T18:56:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T14:38:43.000Z
- Description: In a case-control study, women in the highest fifth of total circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D were 46% less likely to be diagnosed with colorectal cancer than those in the lowest. The design cannot establish cause; binding-protein and free vitamin D showed no association.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Vitamins, Nutrition, #vivvo-import

Thursday June 2, 2016 (foodconsumer.org) -- E. Giovannucci at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and colleagues conducted a case-control study and confirmed that total circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D is associated with lower risk of colorectal cancer.The current study found women in the highest quintile of total vitamin D were 46% less likely to be diagnosed with colorectal cancer, compared to those in the lowest quintile. The levels of vitamin D binding protein, free vitamin D and bioavailable vitamin D were not significantly associated with risk of colorectal cancer.For women with colorectal cancer, blood samples collected prior to diagnosis were analyzed to determine total vitamin D, vitamin D binding protein, free vitamin D and bioavailable vitamin D.This could not prove that the association between the total vitamin D level and risk of colorectal cancer was a causal relation, meaning that supplementation with vitamin D may not lower the risk even though the possibility could not be ruled out either. Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to more than 17 types of cancers. Among other things, vitamin D is known to promote the production of antibacterial peptites and play an important role in innate immunity. (David Liu)*Song M, Konijeti GG, Yuan C, Ananthakrishnan AN, Ogino S, Fuchs CS, Giovannucci E, Ng K, Chan AT. Plasma 25-Hydroxyvitamin D, Vitamin D Binding Protein, and Risk of Colorectal Cancer in the Nurses' Health Study. Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2016 May 31\.* 

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