Impact of total and ionized serum calcium on prostate cancer risk in North Indian men.

INTRODUCTION Calcium has anti-proliferative and pro-differentiation effects on cells in vitro and can inhibit the development of various cancers. While there is some epidemiologic evidence for an inverse relation between dietary calcium intake and prostate cancer risk, only few have focused on serum calcium levels in this respect. MATERIALS AND METHODS We assayed total serum calcium and ionized serum calcium in a pilot study of 40 prostate cancer patients and compared with 40 healthy controls. RESULTS Our observations provided evidence for an association between prostate cancer risk and total and ionized serum calcium levels(p=0.020 and p≤0.001 respectively). The mean difference of total serum calcium was also significant in patients with serum PSA >20ng/ ml (p=0.017). CONCLUSION This is an important and interesting finding which requires further exploration into mechanism involved in calcium channel and prostate cancer risk in a larger cohort of different ethnic population.