There are similarities experienced by three quarters of cancer patients about vitamin deficiency.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — As many as three quarters of patients cancer have one similar condition, namely vitamin D deficiency vitamin D the patient has, the more severe the severity of the cancer they have.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world. As of 2020, nearly one in six deaths worldwide is due to cancer. In other words, there were nearly 10 million deaths caused by cancer during 2020.
Despite being one of the biggest causes of death, until now there is no cure for cancer. However, there are various therapeutic options that can help increase the life expectancy of cancer patients.
Studies on cancer are also still being carried out by researchers in various parts of the world. Through this study, researchers also succeeded in finding a correlation between vitamin D levels and cancer.
According to a preliminary study, researchers found that more than three-quarters of cancer patients had low levels of vitamin D. Very low levels of vitamin D are also associated with the development of advanced cancer.
The study, conducted in 2011, involved 160 male and female cancer patients. Most of these participants had breast cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, thyroid cancer, and colorectal cancer.
The research team then measured the participants’ vitamin D levels through their blood samples. Through this measurement, it was found that 42 percent of cancer patients had vitamin D insufficiency conditions. In addition, as many as 32 percent of other cancer patients had vitamin D deficiency. The average vitamin D level of the patients was around 24 ng/mL.
“People with (vitamin D levels) below 24 ng/mL were almost three times more likely to develop stage III cancer than people with higher vitamin D levels,” the report said. WebMDMonday (18/7/2022).
Different studies conducted in a laboratory setting have found that vitamin D has antitumor properties. Antitumor properties come from the ability of vitamin D to regulate genes that play a role in the process of multiplying and spreading cancer cells.
Further studies also found that vitamin D deficiency can also encourage the occurrence of worsening and metastasis breast cancer. Metastasis is a condition in which cancer cells have spread from one organ or body tissue to another.
On the other hand, the link between vitamin D deficiency and cancer risk is still not clearly understood. There is not enough evidence to show that vitamin D deficiency causes cancer.
“However, deficiency of this vitamin can lead to other health problems, including rickets in children and bone problems in adults,” says Cancer Research UK.
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