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# Vitamin D may cut lethal prostate cancer risk
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/vitamin_d_supplements_prostate_cancer_death_081120120754/
- Published: 2012-08-11T08:52:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:09:12.000Z
- Description: Men with the highest blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D were 57 percent less likely to develop lethal prostate cancer than those in the lowest quartile, in a study of 1,260 patients and 1,331 controls. Vitamin D levels showed no link to non-lethal prostate cancer.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Vitamins, Nutrition, #vivvo-import

By David Liu, PHD

Saturday Aug 11, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- Prostate cancer is generally non-aggressive, but some cases can be lethal. A new study in the National Cancer Institute suggests that maintaining high levels of vitamin D may drastically reduce the risk of developing lethal or deadly or advanced prostate cancer.

The study led by I.M Shui of Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, MA and colleagues showed that men who had the highest amount of vitamin D in the form of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) were 57 percent less likely to develop lethal prostate cancer, compared to those who had lower levels.

The study involved 1260 men who were diagnosed with prostate cancer after providing a blood sample between 1993 and 1995 and 1331 control subjects who did not have the disease. A total of 114 prostate cancer patients died during the followed-up through March 2011.

For the study, the researchers also tried to associate risk of lethal prostate cancer with 97 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genomic regions covering seven vitamin D-related genes including CYP27A1, CYP2R1, CYP27B1, GC, CYP24A1, RXRA, and VDR.

25(OH)D levels in the highest quartile were associated with a 57 percent reduced risk of lethal prostate cancer compared to levels in the lowest quartile. But vitamin D levels were not correlated with risk of developing non-lethal prostate cancer.

The risk of lethal prostate cancer was found associated with the set of SNPs that included all seven vitamin D related genes and the set of SNPs that included VDR and CYP27A1.

The study suggests that vitamin D may be used as a treatment for prostate cancer to reduce the risk of prostate cancer risk. A 57 percent reduction in the prostate cancer death rate means 15,000 men in the U.S. do not have to die from the disease.

Prostate cancer is expected to be diagnosed in about 220,000 men in 2012 in the United States and the disease and complications are expected to kill about 30,000, according to the National Cancer Institute.