Prevalence of serum vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency in cancer: Review of the epidemiological literature

Abstract

Vitamin D deficiency has been found to be associated with a variety of cancers, including prostate, multiple myeloma, colorectal and breast cancer. Several studies have shown vitamin D levels to have an inverse relation with cancer mortality, while others have considered it a potential risk factor. Vitamin D is believed to influence cancer prevalence, risk and survival; hence the need to assess vitamin D levels in cancer. Although numerous studies have been conducted to demonstrate vitamin D deficiency as a risk factor for cancer, relatively few have studied its prevalence. Moreover, studies estimating prevalence differ from each other, with respect to study population, sample size, study design, definition of vitamin D deficiency used and method of vitamin D assessment (with most studies limited to one particular type of cancer with relatively small sample sizes). Therefore, we qualitatively reviewed the epidemiological evidence in the oncology literature on the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency as measured by serum vitamin D concentrations.