Is there evidence that vitamin D can help reduce pancreatic cancer risk?
Participants in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study and the Nurses’ Health Study (more than 120,000 total), who provided detailed information on their diet through questionnaires at study entry, were followed for 16 years for the incidence of pancreatic cancer, and 365 cases were identified. Compared with participants with the lowest vitamin D intakes, those with higher intakes had progressively lower risks of pancreatic cancer (24). In contrast, among Finnish male smokers participating in the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene (ATBC) study (25), higher serum levels of vitamin D were associated with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer. In a study conducted among a large cohort of individuals aged 55 to 74 who were enrolled in the PLCO Screening Trial, vitamin D levels in blood samples obtained at study entry were compared among 184 individuals diagnosed with pancreatic cancer during nearly 12 years of follow-up and 368 matched cancer-free control subjects (26). No association betw
