Diabetes, pancreatic cancer and vitamin D. Is there a link?

The role of vitamin D is not merely limited to maintaining skeletal health but also extends to maintaining glucose homeostasis by preserving insulin secretion and sensitivity and thus deficiency of vitamin D plays an important role in aetiopathogenesis of T2 diabetes. In addition to its many other roles, vitamin D has recently been found to have growth inhibiting affects on pancreatic cancer cells. Ecological studies have shown that there exists an inverse correlation between sun exposure and death rates for pancreatic cancer. Since vitamin D has promising role in both type 2 diabetes mellitus and pancreatic cancer, its deficiency may be associated to any or both of these chronic diseases. The present review thus aims to find correlation between diabetes and pancreatic cancer and if vitamin D is a common link between the two. (C) 2012 Diabetes India. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.