Vitamin D Insufficiency Linked to Higher Incidence of Cutaneous Melanoma
Source: Dermatology Advisor, June 2023
Vitamin D insufficiency was found to be weakly linked to an increased incidence of cutaneous melanoma (CM), and lower vitamin D levels were associated with a less favorable Breslow tumor depth, according to authors of a systematic review and meta-analysis published in Melanoma Research.
CMis the fifth most common cancer in the United States and the most lethal skin cancer, requiring early detection and identification of risk factors to reduce adverse outcomes. Researchers sought to assess the relationship between vitamin D insufficiency and both the incidence and stage of CM, and between CM and levels of 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25[OH]D).
For their study, the researchers searched Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, Embase, Ovid Medline, and PubMed.gov from inception to July 2022, without language restriction, for cohort and case-control studies reporting on patients with CM with vitamin D insufficiency (<20 ng/dL) or mean 25(OH)D levels compared with healthy controls, or reporting on patients with CM and documented Breslow tumor depth or development of metastasis with vitamin D insufficiency.