Background: Black men exhibit a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency as well as higher incidence of prostate cancer and higher mortality rates from prostate cancer than Whites.
There are few data about the effect of vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) supplementation on prostate specific antigen (PSA) in healthy Black men.
Methods: During 3 winters from 2007-2010, 105 Black men (median age, 48.9 years) of Boston, MA were randomized into a 4-arm, double-blind trial for 3 months of placebo, 1000, 2000, or 4000 IU of vitamin D3. At baseline and 3 months, free and total PSA were measured.
Results: With vitamin D supplementation, no significant differences in free and total PSA were observed; free PSA: -0.0004 ng/mL (p=0.94) and total PSA: -0.004 ng/mL (p=0.92) for each additional 1000 IU/d of vitamin D3.
Conclusion: Within an unselected population of healthy Black men without a cancer diagnosis, we found no effect of vitamin D supplementation on free or total PSA.
Impact: These findings support prior findings of no change in PSA with vitamin D supplementation and emphasize the need for new methods to assess the influence of vitamin D supplementation on prostate cancer prevention.
Written by:
Chandler PD, Giovannucci EL, Scott JB, Bennett GG, Ng K, Chan AT, Hollis BW, Emmons KM, Fuchs CS, Drake BF. Are you the author?
Preventive Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital; Departments of Epidemiology & Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health; Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University; Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University; Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Department of Gastroenterology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School; Division of Pediatrics, Medical University of South Carolina; Center for Community-Based Research, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Department of Medical Oncology, Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School; Department of Surgery, Division of Public Health Sciences, Washington Univeristy.
Reference: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2014 Jun 28. pii: cebp.0522.2014.
doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-14-0522
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 24974387
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