NCI launched the Vitamin D Pooling Project (VDPP) in 2007 with the goal of providing reliable estimates of the relative risk of cancer that would fill the gaps in knowledge of the associations between vitamin D levels and cancer. Through the use of the resources available in the NCI Cohort Consortium, funding was allocated for measuring circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) in prospectively collected and stored samples of plasma and serum from eight extramural cohorts supported by the NCI Division of Cancer Control and Populations Sciences and from two DCEG cohorts. The VDPP examined associations between vitamin D and cancer at several less common sites, including cancers of the endometrium, kidney, ovary, pancreas, stomach, and esophagus, as well as non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The results from the VDPP were published in nine articles in the July 1, 2010, issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, including an overview, a description of the project design and methods, findings on the correlates of circulating vitamin D, and six cancer site–specific reports. Investigators found that women and men with higher concentrations of circulating vitamin D did not experience reduced risk for any of the cancers examined during the follow-up periods for the cohorts. The analysis of pancreatic cancer, however, found a significantly elevated risk in a relatively small number of subjects with circulating 25(OH)D greater than 100 nmol/L, which represents approximately the 95th percentile of the U.S. population.
For more information, contact Demetrius Albanes.