Here’s what scientists want you to know about the vitamin that could help you lower your risk of catching prostate cancer early.

Prostate cancer, after skin cancer, is the most prevalent cancer among men in America. The American Cancer Society has estimated that in 2023, there will be approximately 288,300 new cases of prostate cancer and about 34,700 deaths resulting from it in the United States.

The diagnosis of prostate cancer has shown a considerable decline between 2007 to 2014, coinciding with a decrease in screening due to changes in screening guidelines.

Nevertheless, since 2014, there has been a 3% annual rise in the overall incidence rate, and advanced-stage prostate cancer has increased by about 5% each year.

The risk of developing prostate cancer is higher in older men and non-Hispanic Black men. Around 60% of cases are detected in men aged 65 or above, and approximately 10% of newly diagnosed cases in the U.S. involve men under the age of 55. While it is rare, prostate cancer can also occur in young adults or even teenagers.

Recently, there has been a global rise in early-onset prostate cancer among men aged between 15 and 40 years old. However, the exact reasons for this increase remain unclear. It could be due to certain risk factors or changes in screening protocols and awareness about the possibility of prostate cancer in younger men.

New research from Cedars-Sinai Cancer suggests that men who don’t get enough vitamin D may get more aggressive prostate cancer at a younger age.

Even though vitamin D has been studied before in relation to differences in health, this is the first study to look at how it works across the whole genome in African American men and European American men.

“African American men are more likely than European American men to develop prostate cancer, and are twice as likely to die from the disease,” remarks senior author Moray Campbell.

This study “identifies biological factors that might explain it.”

According to Campbell, Vitamin D is crucial not only for bone health, as it facilitates the absorption of calcium, but also in promoting cell maturation. In contrast to cancer cells, which keep dividing and producing abnormal cells, healthy cells undergo maturation and eventually die off.

“Without sufficient levels of vitamin D to cause them to mature, the cells in a tumor continue to multiply out of control,” points out Campbell.

According to Campbell and his research colleagues, individuals of African ancestry exhibit unique adaptations in the vitamin D receptor, which is a protein that facilitates the body’s utilization of vitamin D.

As per Campbell, the ancestors of both “African American and European American men have adapted to the climates” of their respective regions of origin. African men, for instance, have higher melanin concentrations in their skin to shield themselves from intense sunlight, which aids in the production of vitamin D in the body.

Due to this, their offspring in the United States, which receives less sunshine hours compared to African nations, often face a deficiency in vitamin D.

When researchers looked at prostate cancer cells from African and European patients that were made in the lab of Clayton Yates, PhD, at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, they found that the way the cells responded to vitamin D was different for each group.

According to Cambell, “Their response to vitamin D was very, very different, including which genes the vitamin D receptor was controlling and the magnitude of that control.

“In African American men, this differing response made them more vulnerable to prostate cancer.”

According to Campbell, delving deeper into this subject could lead to revising the nutritional recommendations for vitamin D intake, particularly for promoting bone and prostate health, based on an individual’s genetic ancestry. He stressed the importance of more studies to determine the optimal vitamin D dosage for each ethnic group, as well as to understand how the vitamin D receptor functions alongside other proteins linked to prostate cancer.

A study conducted by Michigan State University and Hurley Medical Center on almost 80,000 adults discovered that taking vitamin D supplements for at least three years was associated with a 13% reduction in all cancer-related mortality.

In a separate investigation conducted by Madrid University Hospital, it was revealed that consuming a daily tablet, combined with a statin, led to a 38% decrease in fatalities due to prostate cancer. The researchers concluded that the effects of both the medication and the vitamin were independent of each other, implying that the two worked together to improve overall survival rates.

According to a study conducted by the Allegheny Health Network Cancer Institute in Pittsburgh, a lack of vitamin D may increase the risk of pancreatic cancer twofold.

The researchers recommended that General Practitioners (GPs) prescribe supplements to their patients to boost their vitamin D intake.

Source: Cedars-Sinai Cancer

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