Inadequate levels of vitamin D (25-hydroxy-vitamin D) are found in more than three-quarters of cancer patients, and the lowest levels are linked to advanced cancers, according to a study presented at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).
“Researchers are just starting to examine how vitamin D may impact specific features of cancer, such as the stage or extent of tumor spread, prognosis, recurrence or relapse of disease, and even sub-types of cancer,” said Thomas Churilla, lead author of the study and a medical student at the Commonwealth Medical College, Scranton, PA.
To see if vitamin D levels were related to any specific aspects of cancer, researchers evaluated the vitamin D levels of 160 patients. The median age of the study participants was 64 years, with a 1:1 ratio of men to women. Furthermore, the 5 most common primary diagnoses were breast, prostate, lung, thyroid, and colorectal cancer.
Results showed that 77% of patients had either deficient (<20 ng/mL) or suboptimal (20-30 ng/mL) vitamin D concentrations. The median serum vitamin D level was 23.5 ng/mL. Moreover, levels of vitamin D were less than the calculated median for advanced-stage disease in the patient group, regardless of the patient’s age or sex.
Replacement therapy was administered to the patients with evidence of vitamin D deficiency, thus increasing serum vitamin D levels by an average of 14.9 ng/mL. Future analysis of vitamin D supplementation will determine its impact in relation to treatment and survival in the long-term.
Source: ASTRO.