Lung cancer and benign lung diseases in patients with serious vitamin D deficiency in eastern China

BACKGROUND: Vitamin D deficiency is a global problem. OBJECTIVE: We examined the 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations to confirm whether patients with lung diseases in eastern China showed vitamin D deficiency and whether this deficiency was related to the risk of lung cancer. We used chemiluminescence to estimate the 25(OH)D concentrations in 250 patients from eastern China, of whom 197 had untreated stage III/IV lung cancer and 53 had benign lung diseases. RESULTS: The mean serum 25(OH)D concentration of patients with lung cancer was 10.63 ± 7.04 ng/mL, while the mean serum of patients with benign lung disease was 9.62 ± 6.37 ng/mL. Although there was no significant difference between the values, the mean serum concentrations of 25(OH)D obtained in patients with lung cancer and benign lung diseases were lower than the normal value (>20 ng/mL); P values in both cases were less than 0.0001. Among the 250 patients, 90 showed low serum 25(OH)D levels of ≤4 ng/mL. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with lung diseases in eastern China have low serum levels of 25(OH)D, and the average serum 25(OH)D level is well below the normal vitamin D level. As the average serum 25(OH)D levels in patients with lung cancer or benign lung diseases are very low, we cannot conclude whether the low levels of 25(OH)D are a risk factor for lung cancer.