Hi Wolfgang and Jim, I looked for and found the paper that Jim mentioned on the Vit D3 therapy used on the woman with the large Desmoid tumor. The similarities between Dupuytrens and these tumors is pretty striking. It's an interesting if somewhat technical read. It also mentions the history of successful use of Vit D3 in treating other cancer growths, which I know Wolfgang was interested in finding documentation for. Here's the link:
http://jjco.oxfordjournals.org/content/34/8/472.full

Also below is another very good article, this one from CNN's Dr.Sanja Gupta, about the importance of Vitamin D in preventing the onset of genetic diseases, especially auto-immune diseases.
(My link had a flaw so the kind poster below fixed it) Thanks!

Edited 04/14/11 18:08

Thanks for fixing that link! I agree that heredity plays a huge role in DD, as it does in many diseases, and most auto-immune diseases do run in families. They aren't mutually exclusive. But the great thing is that there are other trigger factors that determine if you get the disease and/or get it early in life. And these trigger factors are often things within our control. That is the message we should be getting from this Vitamin D news. Sunlight is not the enemy that we have assumed it is for the past 50 years. In moderation, it is a vital contributor to our functioning biology.

There is some questionable science happening with regard to Dupuytren's being an autoimmune disorder. The most recent published research from 2007 was a study of 4,866 Danish CSCR carriers over 71,230 person-years (1980 through 2004) for autoimmune diseases recorded in the Danish Hospital Discharge Register. "The overall risk of any autoimmune disease among CSCR carriers was inconspicuous (SIR 1.2 [95% CI 0.95–1.5]; n = 74 cases observed versus 61.3 expected)"

Danes has a whole have the highest incidence of Duputrene's among the population of any country but only 74 cases showed any autoimmune possibility and most of the 74 showed juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and not Dupuytren's. Among a sample group of 4,866 one would expect there to be more than 400 individuals with Dupuytren's or at least 5x as many as were found.

"In a Norwegian study of 15,950 citizens, DD was present in 10.5% of men and in 3.2% of women (3). In a large 1962 review of published figures, P. F. Early arrayed the countries of European stock in order of incidence of DD: Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States." If you cannot find a conclusive link with a massive study of Danes it is probable that the link does not exist or is not causal in nature.

So the numbers do not add up and are not even close to showing Dupuytren's to be an autoimmune disorder though these conjectures in the medical publications go back at least as far as 1963. In more than 45 years this postulation has not advanced one bit, even with all the biotechnology that has become available.

Just curious since everybody is talking about vitamin d - i was wondering the best way to get tested because 2 years ago my number on my blood test was 11 and so i started to take 1000 i.u. and still do. My question is the doctors want you to test while you are taking d but i think you should be off of it for a week to get a correct reading. What do you think?

Edited 01/17/11 23:18

Just came across some interesting info about DC on a Diabetes site. It looks at Dupuytrens from a little different angle, namely from an insulin resistance/high blood glucose angle. They recommend looking at Vitamin deficiencies as possible cause and particularly Vitamin D as well as B Vitamins and minerals especially Magnesium, Zinc and Calcium to help level out blood glucose levels.

http://www.diabetesnet.com/about-diabete...ens-contracture