Page 31 - Vitamin D and Cancer

18 H.S. Cross

could be age- and colonic-site-related. Activation of the CYP24A1 gene during
progression could potentially be halted by a combination of methyltransferase
inhibitors and histone deacetylase inhibitors.
When considering prevention of cancer by vitamin D, we speculate that
nutritional folate as a methyl donor for epigenetic control, as well as enhanced
consumption of calcium and phytoestrogens could optimize expression of
vitamin D hydroxylases during the decades that it takes a sporadic tumor to
develop. Maintaining high extrarenal tissue concentrations of 1,25-(OH) D ,
2 3
by whatever means, could prove to be a most effective cancer-preventive
approach.

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