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Our Funds at Work
Tim Lee, MD, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
The incidence of skin cancer around the world has increased rapidly, but the treatment methods for the disease have not changed in decades. It is desirable to find the cause of the disease and to develop new treatment methods. Although many laboratory studies suggest that vitamin D suppresses the growth of skin tumors in animal models and vitamin D deficiency is linked to increasing risk of breast, colon and prostate cancer, there are few epidemiological studies on vitamin D in relation to skin cancer. Furthermore, most of these epidemiological studies estimate the vitamin D level based on food-frequency questionnaires, which do not account for all vitamin D intakes, while other studies had a very small number of study subjects. In this proposed study, we will determine the risk of skin cancer based on skin cancer history of the participants obtained from the B.C. Cancer Registry, the circulating vitamin D concentrations from their blood samples, the life-long sun-exposure history and other personal information. Complementing previous epidemiological studies, the proposed study contributes to the understanding of the relationship between vitamin D and skin cancer and may help medical professionals discover new treatment and prevention methods for skin cancer.
©2007
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