title: Impact of total and ionized serum calcium on prostate cancer risk in North Indian men.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Calcium has anti-proliferative and pro-differentiation effects on cells in vitro and can inhibit the development of various cancers. While there is some epidemiologic evidence for an inverse relation between dietary calcium intake and prostate cancer risk, only few have focused on serum calcium levels in this respect.
  
  
  METHODS
  We assayed total serum calcium and ionized serum calcium in a pilot study of 40 prostate cancer patients and compared with 40 healthy controls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our observations provided evidence for an association between prostate cancer risk and total and ionized serum calcium levels(p=0.020 and p≤0.001 respectively). The mean difference of total serum calcium was also significant in patients with serum PSA >20ng/ ml (p=0.017).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This is an important and interesting finding which requires further exploration into mechanism involved in calcium channel and prostate cancer risk in a larger cohort of different ethnic population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology and Renal Transplantation, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, India.
authors.forename: Ginu P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: George
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ramesh
authors.forename: Rama D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Mittal
mesh_terms: D002118:Calcium / Q000097:blood*; D015220:Calcium Channels / Q000032:analysis; D002136:Calcium, Dietary; D015331:Cohort Studies; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000453:epidemiology; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D015220:Calcium Channels; D002136:Calcium, Dietary; D002118:Calcium