Vitamin D deficiency found among cancer patients.(Industry News)

Researchers believe cancer patients should undergo vitamin D screening after a recent study found high prevalence of deficiency among subjects, irrespective of nutritional status. Conducted at the CancerTreatment Centers of America (CTCA) researchers assessed 737 cancer patients (302 male and 435 female) between January and June of 2008. Subjects were evaluated and assigned to one of three classes of nutritional status: well nourished, moderately malnourished and severely malnourished. The mean age at presentation was about 56 years and the most common cancer types were lung (133, 18%), breast (131, 18%), colorectal (97,13%), pancreatic (86, 12%), prostate (44, 6%) and ovarian (38, 5%). Researchers had hypothesized that malnutrition could contribute to vitamin D deficiency and therefore expected mean serum 25-hydroxy-vitamin D [25(OH)D] levels to be significantly lower in malnourished oncology patients. However, vitamin D deficiency was not linked to nutritional status.

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