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Calcium plus vitamin D may reduce risk of melanoma in certain women

Jean Y. Tang, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator ‘11-‘14) of Stanford University, Stanford, and colleagues, reported analysis of data from the Women’s Health Initiative. They found that women with a history of non-melanoma skin cancer, such as basal cell or squamous cell cancers, who took a calcium-vitamin D combination developed 57 percent fewer melanomas than women with similar histories who were not given the supplements. In the future, researchers plan to further examine the potential relationship between vitamin D and cancer prevention. The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.