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Association of Vitamin D Pathway Genetic Variation and Thyroid Cancer. Carvalho Isabel S,Gonçalves Catarina I,Almeida Joana T,Azevedo Teresa,Martins Teresa,Rodrigues Fernando J,Lemos Manuel C Genes Vitamin D is mostly known for its role in bone and calcium metabolism. However, studies have suggested that it also has inhibitory effects on tumor development and progression. Genetic variants close to genes that encode crucial enzymes for the synthesis ( rs12785878), metabolism ( rs2060793) and degradation ( rs6013897) of vitamin D have been associated with serum levels of vitamin D. The aim of this case-control study was to determine the effect of these variants in the vitamin D pathway on the susceptibility to thyroid cancer. Five hundred patients with differentiated thyroid cancer and 500 controls were genotyped for the rs12785878, rs2060793, and rs6013897 variants. Genotype and allele frequencies were compared between patients and controls. The rs12785878 minor allele was associated with thyroid cancer under an additive (OR 1.38, 95% CI 1.15-1.65, = 0.0004) and codominant (OR 1.88, 95% CI 1.30-2.74, = 0.0021) model. These findings suggest that polymorphisms may be associated with an increased risk of thyroid cancer due to an effect of this gene on circulating vitamin D levels. 10.3390/genes10080572