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Lack of vitamin D linked to cancer of the plasma cell

Category: Vitamin D Deficiency-Diagnosis and Treatment

Vitamin D deficiency is increasingly seen as a world-wide problem by the medical community. The number of diseases and conditions linked to a deficiency in this essential nutrient continues to grow, along with evidence that blood levels of vitamin D are too low in populations around the world.

New research published in the July issue of the Journal of Hematology indicates that patients with newly-diagnosed multiple myeloma, a cancer of the white blood cells, may have a worse prognosis if they also have a vitamin D deficiency.

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic gave vitamin D tests to patients with multiple myeloma, and found that those with lower levels of vitamin D had higher scores on CRP tests and blood tests of creatinine, two factors which are known to track with poorer outcomes and survival for the disease.

The proportion of patients with vitamin D was also higher in each progressively worse stage of cancer.

Some researchers have speculated that vitamin D is linked to so many diseases because it affects immune system function and suppresses inflammation.

There were more than 56,000 Americans living with multiple myeloma in 2005, according to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.