Low Vitamin D Levels for Skin Cancer Patients

A recent article from Web MD that Dr. Asa Andrew discussed on "Dr. Asa on Call"

Protecting your skin from the sun to help prevent skin cancer may have an unhealthy side effect: vitamin D deficiency.

A new study shows vitamin D deficiency is increasingly common among people with a genetic predisposition to sun-related skin cancers known as basal cell nevus syndrome.

Researchers found people with basal cell nevus syndrome were three times more likely to have low vitamin D levels than the general population.
“Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with an increased risk of autoimmune disease, fractures, cancer, cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality,” write researcher Jean Y. Tang, MD, PhD of Stanford University, and colleagues in the Archives of Dermatology. “There is increasing concern that sun protection, recommended by dermatologists to prevent further UV damage in populations susceptible to skin cancer, may result in abnormally low levels of [vitamin D], which may have subsequent detrimental effects on health.”

In the study, researchers took periodic blood samples from 41 people with basal cell nevus syndrome over a period of two years. The results show 23 (56%) of the participants had vitamin D deficiency.  

Blood levels of vitamin D were lower among those with basal cell nevus syndrome who were overweight and in those who had blood samples taken in winter compared with summer.

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