Biochemical Status of Vitamin A in Colorectal Cancer.

Abstract

SummarySerum There is considerable evidence from case-control studies that a low serum level of vitamin A is an important risk factor for the development of a variety of human cancers of epithelial cell origin [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Several of these studies [1,[4][5][6]8 ] have also indicated that the presence of an established cancer is associated with low serum concentrations of the vitamin A transport proteins, which include retinol-binding protein (RBP) and prealbumin. Furthermore, in our recent study [9] where serum vitamin A and RBP levels were measured in patients with surgically resected cancers of the colon and rectum, those who subsequently had recurrent disease showed lower levels of vitamin A and RBP compared with those who remained free of recurrence. Low RBP levels in plasma have also been reported in patients with recurrence of breast tumors, when compared with the

Biochemical Status of Vitamin A in Patients with Malignant and Benign Breast Disease.

“…However, as with retinol we observed no difference in RBP levels between the breast cancer and benign breast disease patients. These findings are similar to the results obtained in a recent study involving patients with colorectal cancer [26], where it was shown that serum levels of retinol and its transport proteins were significantly lower in cancer patients than in age and sex-matched controls. However, no significant differences in these biochemical parameters were apparent when the cancer patients were compared with a group of patients with benign colorectal disease.…”