ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Epidemiology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1617565
This article is part of the Research TopicNutrition, Inflammation and Oxidative Stress in Obstetrics and GynecologyView all 17 articles
Serum 25 (OH) D Levels and Risk of Female-Specific Cancer in Premenopausal Women: A Prospective Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University, Shanghai, China
- 2College of Economics and Management, China Agricultural University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
- 3Department of Military Health Statistics, Naval Medical University, shanghai, China
- 4Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, 7th Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China
- 5College of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, 8thMedical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China
- 6Senior Department of Orthopedics, the Forth Medical Center, PLA General Hospital,, Beijing, China
- 7Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
- 8Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
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Serum 25 (OH) D levels are associated with various diseases, including cancers, but inconsistencies exist for female-specific malignancies. This study is aimed to explore the real relationship between serum 25 (OH) D levels and incidence rates of female specific cancers in premenopausal women by a large-scale prospective cohort study.We analyzed data from 51,286 UK Biobank participants using Cox regression models to explore associations. Subgroup analyses were based on vitamin D supplementation, alcohol, smoking, BMI, diabetes, sleep, and outdoor exposure. Categorical variables were described by frequencies and compared with chi-squared tests.During a median follow-up of 13.8 years, all cancer incidence was 5.1% (n=2614), with ovarian cancer at 0.3% (n=176), breast cancer at 4.4% (n=2232), and uterine body cancer at 0.5% (n=235). Low serum 25 (OH) D (50 nmol/L) was linked to increased risks of ovarian (HR: 1.457, 95% CI: 1.047-2.027) and uterine body cancer (HR: 1.372, 95% CI: 1.023-1.841). Each 10 nmol/L increase in 25 (OH) D reduced ovarian cancer risk (HR: 0.904, 95% CI: 0.835-0.979). Alcohol use and sleep <6 hours were risk factors for ovarian and uterine cancer in those with low 25 (OH) D levels.Maintaining adequate serum 25 (OH) D levels is essential for overall health, reducing the risk of ovarian cancer, and potentially lowering susceptibility to uterine corpus cancer.
Keywords: Female-Specific Malignant Tumor, Premenopausal women, prospective cohort study, serum 25 (OH) D, UK Biobank, Vitamin D
Received: 24 Apr 2025; Accepted: 29 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hu, Zhu, Qin, Zhu, Zhang, Tong and Cai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Qiang Tong, Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200233, Shanghai Municipality, China
Shengyun Cai, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University, Shanghai, China
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