Comparison of serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D amongst black African prostate cancer patients with non-aggressive versus aggressive disease using the Gleason score

Abstract

Background: Black men of African descent have higher risk for developing prostate cancer and present at a younger age with advanced disease and a poorer prognosis. Limited number of studies directly linking serum vitamin D with either prostate cancer prognosis or measures of prostate cancer aggressiveness have been done. The objective of this study is to compare serum 25 hydroxy vitamin D levels in patients with non-aggressive and aggressive prostate cancer using the Gleason score in black Africans in Jos. Methods: A cross sectional study conducted among fifty patients who presented to the urological surgical out-patient clinic of the Jos University Teaching Hospital who had clinical diagnosis of prostate cancer and were scheduled for prostate biopsy. Blood samples for serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D assay was analysed using the enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique, patients with histologically confirmed prostate cancer were analysed. Data was collected in a proforma, statistical analysis done using statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS)(R) version 23 and t-test was used for comparison with a p value <0.05 considered significant. Results: Fifty patients were studied whose age ranged from 50-89 years. The mean level of serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D was 37.90 ng/ml±17.92. The mean serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D of patients with non-aggressive disease (GS≤6) and aggressive disease (GS≥7) was 48.44±17.09 and 34.57±17.08 respectively with a p value of 0.018. Conclusions: This study showed that black African prostate cancer patients with high grade tumors (Gleason score ≥7) had significantly lower 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels compared to those with low grade tumors (Gleason score <7).