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Vitamin D Levels and Its Correlation with Severity of Breast Cancer

Introduction: Vitamin D has wide range of actions in the body which include immunogenic actions, differentiation of immune cells and keratinocytes, expression of growth factors etc. Genes encoding for proteins that regulate cellular differentiation, cell proliferation, apoptosis and angiogenesis contain vitamin D response element. Materials and Methods: A total of 135 newly diagnosed cases of breast cancer and equal number of controls were recruited in the study. The histo-pathological grading of cancer, Hormone-receptor status (estrogen receptor-ER, progesterone receptor PR and HER-2 receptor) was done by immunohistochemistry, stage of tumor (based on TNM Classification), details of metastasis were noted. Vitamin D levels were done by HPLC method. Results: The mean age, age at menarche, BMI, calcium intake, sun exposure, Ser PTH levels, Ser Calcium levels were insignificantly different in both the groups. Ser Vitamin D levels were 30.95±17.65 ng/Ml in cases and 27.21±7.97 ng/Ml in controls, with a p value of 0.198 which is not significant. The levels of Vitamin D in ng/Ml in Stage I, Stage II, Stage III and Stage IV were as follows: 26.06±11.45, 29.61±17.23, 47.33±21.13, 42.67±28.92 and a p value of 0.190(NS). Thus there was no significant difference in Vitamin D levels of cases and controls. The association between the biomarker status and stages showed significant results as indicated by p-value of 0.043. Conclusion: This study fails to find any inverse association of vitamin D with severity of breast cancer and receptor status.