PSA levels in blacks were not changed by 3 months of 4,000 IU of vitamin D (not enough)

Null Association Between Vitamin D and PSA Levels Among Black Men in a Vitamin D Supplementation Trial

Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention June 2014

Paulette D. Chandler1,*, Edward L. Giovannucci2, Jamil B. Scott3, Gary G. Bennett4, Kimmie Ng5, Andrew T. Chan6, Bruce W. Hollis7, Karen M. Emmons8, Charles S. Fuchs9, and Bettina F. Drake10

1Preventive Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital

2Departments of Epidemiology & Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health

3Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University

4Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University

5Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

6Department of Gastroenterology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School

7Division of Pediatrics, Medical University of South Carolina

8Center for Community-Based Research, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

9Department of Medical Oncology, Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School

10Department of Surgery, Division of Public Health Sciences, Washington Univeristy

↵* Corresponding Author:

Paulette D. Chandler, Preventive Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 900 Commonwealth Ave, 3rd Floor, Boston, MA, 02115, United States pchandler@partners.org

Background: Black men exhibit a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency as well as higher incidence of prostate cancer and higher mortality rates from prostate cancer than Whites. There are few data about the effect of vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) supplementation on prostate specific antigen (PSA) in healthy Black men.

Methods: During 3 winters from 2007-2010, 105 Black men (median age, 48.9 years) of Boston, MA were randomized into a 4-arm, double-blind trial for 3 months of placebo, 1000, 2000, or 4000 IU of vitamin D3. At baseline and 3 months, free and total PSA were measured.

Results: With vitamin D supplementation, no significant differences in free and total PSA were observed; free PSA: -0.0004 ng/mL (p=0.94) and total PSA: -0.004 ng/mL (p=0.92) for each additional 1000 IU/d of vitamin D3.

Conclusion: Within an unselected population of healthy Black men without a cancer diagnosis, we found no effect of vitamin D supplementation on free or total PSA. Impact: These findings support prior findings of no change in PSA with vitamin D supplementation and emphasize the need for new methods to assess the influence of vitamin D supplementation on prostate cancer prevention.

Received May 9, 2014. Revision received June 5, 2014. Accepted June 19, 2014.


Comment by VitaminDWiki

Giving 4,000 IU of vitamin D to 50 year old Black men in the winter in Northern US will NOT restore their vitamin D levels

They are in not one, but four categories of being at high risk for vitamin D deficiency

  1. Winter

  2. Far from equator

  3. Senors

  4. Dark Skin

The 360,000 IU given (4,000 x 90 days) would have been a nice loading dose to start with, followed by the dose rate used in the study

See also VitaminDWiki

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