Grant: CIHR - ICR / Cancer Research Society Partnership - Research Grants

Of the cancers that occur only among women, ovarian cancer is the most deadly. We currently do not have enough information to know how to prevent the disease. Vitamin D, which is obtained through exposure to the sun and from the diet, may help prevent women from getting ovarian cancer in the first place. We collected data on various lifestyle factors, including sources of sun exposure and diet, for the lifetime in a group of women newly diagnosed with ovarian cancer in Montreal, and a group of women without ovarian cancer that are representative of Montreal area women at risk of ovarian cancer. In the proposed study, we will compare these groups of women to determine differences in their lifetime vitamin D exposures, which may indicate that vitamin D plays a role in the risk of ovarian cancer.