Monica Rienzo

Transcriptional regulation is a critical biological process that allows the cell or an organism to respond to a variety of intra- and extracellular signals, to define cell identity during development, to maintain it throughout its lifetime, and to coordinate cellular activity [...]

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common non-cutaneous malignancy in men worldwide, and it represents the fifth leading cause of death. It has long been recognized that dietary habits can impact prostate health and improve the benefits of traditional medical care. The activity of novel agents on prostate health is routinely assessed by measuring changes in serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels. Recent studies hypothesized that vitamin D supplementation reduces circulating androgen levels and PSA secretion, inhibits cell growth of the hormone-sensitive PCa cell lines, counteracts neoangiogenesis and improves apoptosis. However, the results are conflicting and inconsistent. Furthermore, the use of vitamin D in PCa treatments has not achieved consistently positive results to date. In order to assess the existence of a correlation between the PSA and 25(OH)vitamin D levels as widely hypothesized in the literature, we analyzed the serum PSA and 25(OH)vitamin D concentration on a cohort of one hundred patients joining a PCa screening campaign. Additionally, we performed medical and pharmacological anamnesis and analyzed lifestyle, as sport practice and eating habits, by administering a questionnaire on family history. Although several studies suggested a protective role of vitamin D in PCa onset prevention and progression, our preliminary results revealed a clear absence of correlation between the serum vitamin D and PSA concentration levels, suggesting that vitamin D has no impact on PCa risk. Further investigations enrolling a huge number of patients are needed with particular attention to vitamin D supplementation, calcium intake, solar radiation that influences vitamin D metabolism and other potential indicators of health to confirm the absence of correlation observed in our study.