Vitamin D and Cancer Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Vitamin D and Cancer - Research Paper Example There are some studies which showed that increase intake of foods and dietary supplements containing high vitamin D content is associated with decrease incidence of different malignancies for instance colorectal carcinoma, the fact whether vitamin D decreases the incidence of other cancers for example breast, pancreatic or prostate cancer is still unclear. [1] Calcitriol, the hormonally active form of this vitamin have been tested and proven in many of the animal models that it has got growth inhibitory as well as favorable effects on the differentiation of the tumor cells resulting in the slowing down of the tumor cells. ... which were living in the areas with increase sun exposures suffered from a skin cancer usually Squamous Cell Carcinoma (S.C.C) which is not a fatal one usually due to its less likelihood to metastasize but these people showed decrease incidence of serious internal malignancies like breast, prostate or colorectal cancers which supported the fact that vitamin D has a protective effect by decreasing the incidence of malignancies. The role of the vitamin D remains unclear until in the late 1980s when two epidemiologists named Garland brothers stated that adequate sunlight decreased the incidence of Colon Cancer. They also observed that women who were exposed to adequate sunlight have fifty percent less mortality from breast cancer then the women who has relatively less sun exposure and afterwards another researcher named Gary Schwartz observed the same to be true for the prostate cancer and they all were of the view that vitamin D is the main agent behind this observation. The Garlands a lso showed that low levels of vitamin D also relates with the development of colorectal cancers which also explained their earlier observation in which they showed that people who developed S.C.C were at decreased risk of developing cancers like prostatic carcinoma or colorectal carcinoma and it is due to the increase blood level of Calcitriol in these patients owing to increase exposure to sunlight. Figure 1: chemical structure of vitamin D [20] 1.1.1. Vitamin D and the Colon Cancer: The colon cancer is one of the deadliest and the prevalent form of solid malignancy. In 1980’s Garland Brothers showed that colon cancer has got a decreased incidence in people living in the sunny areas and this was possibly due to increase concentration of Calcitriol in their blood. In 1985, scientists