Multivitamin use during and after adjuvant chemotherapy did not reduce the risk of cancer recurrence or mortality in patients with stage III colon cancer, according to recently released findings of Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) 89803. Multivitamin use, however, also did not impact patients’ health negatively.
Previous studies have identified that between 26% and 77% of cancer survivors report using multivitamins. To determine the association between use of multivitamins and cancer recurrence and death, the CALGB researchers conducted a prospective, observational study of 1038 patients with stage III colon cancer enrolled in a separate adjuvant chemotherapy trial. Patients self-reported use of multivitamins during and 6 months after adjuvant chemotherapy. Fifty percent (518) of patients reported use during adjuvant chemotherapy. Compared with nonusers, multivariate hazard ratio (HR) for disease-free survival was 0.94 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.77-1.15), for recurrence-free survival was 0.93 (95% CI, 0.75-1.15), and for overall survival was 0.92 (95% CI, 0.74-1.16). Use at 6 months after completion of adjuvant chemotherapy was also not associated with improved outcome.