Vitamin d and prostate cancer survival in veterans.
Mil Med. 2014 Jan;179(1):81-4. doi: 10.7205/MILMED-D-12-00540.
Der T 1, Bailey BA 2, Youssef D 1, Manning T 3, Grant WB 4, Peiris AN 1.
1 Department of Internal Medicine, East Tennessee State University, P.O. Box 70622, Johnson City, TN 37614.
2 Department Family Medicine, East Tennessee State University, P.O. Box 70621, Johnson City, TN 37614.
3 Mountain Home VAMC, Mountain Home, TN 37684.
4 Sunlight, Nutrition and Health Research Center, P.O. Box 641603, San Francisco, CA 94164-1603.
Prostate cancer remains the second most commonly diagnosed cancer among the male population worldwide. Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to prostate cancer and its aggressiveness. Herein, we initiated a retrospective study to evaluate vitamin D status and monitoring in veterans with prostate cancer, and to examine the potential link between vitamin D and survival status and length of survival in this population. We found that veterans who were initially vitamin D deficient were significantly less likely to survive than those who were not initially deficient, and that both initial and follow-up vitamin D deficiency were associated with decreased likelihood of survival after prostate cancer diagnosis. We recommend that vitamin D deficiency be replaced in veterans with prostate cancer.
Reprint & Copyright © 2014 Association of Military Surgeons of the U.S.
PMID: 24402990
What appears to be a US gov funded study, and thus should be freely available, is behind a $20 paywall