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Vitamin D levels not associated with aggressiveness, prognosis in papillary thyroid cancer
In patients with vitamin D insufficiency and papillary thyroid cancer, lower serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels are not linked to greater disease aggressiveness or poorer outcomes, according to study findings published in Thyroid.
Yun Jae Chung, MD, PhD, of the department of internal medicine at Chung-Ang University Hospital in Korea, and colleagues evaluated data from 820 patients who underwent total thyroidectomy and were diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer at the Chung-Ang University Hospital between May 2011 and April 2014. Researchers sought to determine the relationship between preoperative serum 25-(OH)D levels and aggressiveness and prognosis of papillary thyroid cancer in patients with vitamin D insufficiency (< 30 ng/mL).
Follow-up was conducted for a median 35 months, and the mean adjusted 25-(OH)D level was 14.5 ng/dL. Participants were divided into four groups based on vitamin D levels: quartile 1 (< 9.9 ng/mL), quartile 2 (9.9-13.1 ng/mL), quartile 3 (13.2-17.6 ng/mL) and quartile 4 (17.7-44 ng/dL).
Ninety-seven percent of participants had 25-(OH)D levels less than 30 ng/dL. No significant differences were found between the quartiles for advanced cancer stages, extrathyroidal invasion, lateral lymph node metastasis and stratification of the risk for recurrence. No significant effect of recurrence or persistence of papillary thyroid cancer was found with serum vitamin D. Aggressiveness and prognosis of larger papillary thyroid carcinomas were not associated with preoperative vitamin D levels.
“Our results are discordant with previous studies that reported that lower preoperative serum vitamin D levels were associated with poor clinicopathological features in female patients with [papillary thyroid cancer],” the researchers wrote. – by Amber Cox
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.