Can vitamin D help fight cancer?

Photographed above is a type genetically modified mouse that is often used to test the growth of various implanted cancer cells. Our own immune system is one of our greatest allies in suppressing the development of cancer in our bodies, but it often needs a little push. One way of doing this is by using a class of medications called ‘.' These medicines release the brakes on certain immune cells—called killer T cells—that then try and kill cancer cells.

The researchers also found evidence that in Denmark, where the sunshine that helps humans produce vitamin D in their skin is relatively rare, detailed health records reveal that people who had a lack of vitamin D had an elevated risk of developing cancer in the following decade. “This is probably an underestimate,” says Reis e Sousa, “because at least some of these people probably decided to take vitamin D supplements after learning about the deficiency.

To their surprise, it turned out that the cage mates’ tumors were also growing more slowly. But why would proximity to a more cancer-resistant animal slow down tumor growth in normal mice as well?One explanation for this, Giampazolias and Reis e Sousa soon realized, was that mice eat each other's poop; and that something in that poop must have been transferred from the mice with the deactivated gene to the normal mice they were caged with.

Switching off the gene, increasing the amount of vitamin D in the food of genetically normal mice, or adding moreto the mouse gut all had the same effect: more killer T cells attacking the tumor, and slowing down its growth.“We don’t know yet how the bacteria do this,” says Reis e Sousa. “But the effect is unmistakably there.”in sun-starved London, found out he was lacked enough of the vitamin about a decade ago, and has taken supplements ever since.

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