Retrospective Cohort Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Jun 24, 2025; 16(6): 108113
Published online Jun 24, 2025. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v16.i6.108113
Vitamin D deficiency in prostate cancer: Prevalence in a sun-rich climate and influence of androgen deprivation therapy
Nazmul Hasan, Desiree Rafizadeh, Spencer Gibson, Dalia Kaakour, Benjamin Lee, Barbod Khaleghi, Omid Yazdanpanah, Arash Rezazadeh Kalebasty
Nazmul Hasan, Desiree Rafizadeh, Spencer Gibson, Department of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Orange, CA 92868, United States
Dalia Kaakour, Benjamin Lee, Barbod Khaleghi, Omid Yazdanpanah, Arash Rezazadeh Kalebasty, Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, University of California, Irvine, Orange, CA 92868, United States
Author contributions: Hasan N designed the study, collected and analyzed data, and drafted the manuscript; Rafizadeh D collected and analyzed data; Lee B conducted statistical analysis; Gibson S, Kaakour D, and Khaleghi B contributed to manuscript revision and editing; Yazdanpanah O and Rezazadeh Kalebasty A supervised the study and provided guidance; All authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the University of California Irvine (IRB No. 5723).
Informed consent statement: This study was conducted as a retrospective chart review and was approved by the University of California, Irvine Institutional Review Board. A waiver of informed consent was granted due to the minimal-risk, retrospective nature of the study. No identifiable patient information was used in the analysis.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—a checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-a checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: The dataset used in this study is de-identified and available from the corresponding author at nhasan1@hs.uci.edu. Consent was not obtained, but the presented data are anonymized and the risk of identification is low.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Nazmul Hasan, MD, Doctor, Department of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, 333 City Blvd W, Suite 400, Orange, CA 92868, United States. nhasan1@hs.uci.edu
Received: April 7, 2025
Revised: April 22, 2025
Accepted: May 15, 2025
Published online: June 24, 2025
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Core Tip

Core Tip: This retrospective study investigates the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in prostate cancer patients who received treatment in Southern California, a region characterized by high annual sun exposure. It underscores the high deficiency rates among advanced-stage disease patients, as well as Hispanic and Black patients. The study also assesses the impact of androgen deprivation therapy on vitamin D and concludes that there is no substantial change in response to treatment. These results provide evidence for routine screening and supplementation of vitamin D, particularly in high-risk subgroups, and challenges the notion that sun exposure alone guarantees adequate vitamin D levels.