Canadian researchers have made a discovery that demonstrates the potential cancer-preventive effects of vitamin D.

A team of researchers at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, found that vitamin D slows the progression of cells from premalignant to malignant states, keeping their proliferation in check.

The results, which are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that the active form of vitamin D acts by several mechanisms to inhibit both the production and function of the protein cMYC. cMYC drives cell division and is active at elevated levels in more than half of all cancers.