title: Vitamin D and urological cancers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Vitamin D controls calcium and phosphate homeostasis. Additionally, it has been proven that vitamin D is an important modulator of cellular differentiation and proliferation in a number of normal and malignant cells. Vitamin D can regulate proliferation, apoptosis, and cell adhesion at the tumor cell level. It also modifies tumor angiogenesis, invasion, and metastasis and also decreases oxidative DNA damage.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Medline and Web of Science databases were searched without time limit on October 2015 using the terms 'vitamin D' in conjunction with 'kidney cancer', 'bladder cancer', 'prostate cancer', and 'testis cancer'. Autoalerts in Medline were also run and reference lists of original articles, review articles, and book chapters were searched for further eligible articles.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In recent years, vitamin D has received vast attention due to suggestions that it may have a crucial role in the prevention and therapy of various cancers. Many epidemiologic studies have reported the impact of VD3 on preventing several cancers and other pathologies. Assuming that vitamin D status changes cancer risk, enough vitamin D supply would be an easy, economical, and safe cancer incidence and mortality reduction method. However, despite numerous researches, the role of vitamin D in cancer incidence and therapy remains unclear.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The impact of vitamin D is well described in breast, colon, and prostate cancer; yet, there is only little published about other malignancies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology and Oncologic Urology, Wrocław Medical University, Wrocław, Poland.
authors.forename: Wojciech
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Krajewski
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology and Oncologic Urology, Wrocław Medical University, Wrocław, Poland.
authors.forename: Mateusz
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dzięgała
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology and Oncologic Urology, Wrocław Medical University, Wrocław, Poland.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kołodziej
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology and Oncologic Urology, Wrocław Medical University, Wrocław, Poland.
authors.forename: Janusz
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dembowski
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology and Oncologic Urology, Wrocław Medical University, Wrocław, Poland.
authors.forename: Romuald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zdrojowy
keywords: cancer; urology; vitamin D; vitamin D receptor