Colon cancer patients with high vitamin D levels are 39 percent less likely to die from the disease in the years following diagnosis of the disease and 48 percent less likely to die from any cause, according to a Journal of Oncology study published this week.

This is the latest of hundreds of new studies linking the sunshine vitamin with lower cancer rates. Dozens of cancers, as well as heart disease, multiple sclerosis, type I diabetes and osteoporosis, are now linked to vitamin D deficiency.

Although researchers at the Dana Farber Cancer Center who conducted the study are encouraged by the results, they are still calling for further study. Their work followed 304 colorectal cancer patients whose vitamin D blood levels had been established two years prior to diagnosis of the disease.

Click here to read CTV’s full coverage of the study.