Scientists from two universities in Finland and Madrid have now discovered that vitamin D can be used to prevent cancer and that a good vitamin D status can have an anti-cancer effect, especially in colon and blood cancer, but also in breast and prostate cancer. Professor Carsten Carlberg and his team from the University of Eastern Finland and Alberto Muñoz from the Autonomous University of Madrid found less evidence for the treatment of cancer with vitamin D. Therefore, her study focused mainly on the prevention of different types of cancer, but also on the therapy and prognosis of cancer. However, not all patients with colon and blood cancer benefited uniformly from a good vitamin D status. Differences were observed, which then also had an effect on vitamin D supplementation with individual dose administration. Vitamin D has the task of keeping the bones healthy because the fat-soluble vitamin, which is also produced by sunlight, stores calcium in the bones. However, it has another important task, because it regulates the immune system and, via the vitamin D receptor, helps fight cancer cells. Vitamin D plays a role in the differentiation of cells via the receptor, the so-called transcription factor. Affected patients with a low vitamin D status may have a suboptimal function of the receptor, which then no longer works sufficiently and thus does not optimally carry out the differentiation of cells. Cells can grow uncontrolled and turn into cancer cells if blood cells or colon and skin cells do not differentiate sufficiently. A low level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D is also associated with a higher rate of new cases and a poorer prognosis. Therefore, the researchers of the randomized controlled trials recommend an adequate supply of vitamin D, including through supplementation. However, there was not sufficient evidence for a reduction in cancer mortality through the supplementary intake of vitamin D, as the journal „Seminars in Cancer Biology“ also reports.
