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High vitamin D levels associated with lower CRC risk, increased immune response
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High plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were associated with lower risk of colorectal cancer with high-level immune reaction, supporting the role of vitamin D in cancer immunoprevention, according to new research data.
“People with high levels of vitamin D in their bloodstream have a lower overall risk of developing colorectal cancer [CRC],” Shuji Ogino, MD, PhD, from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said in a press release. “Laboratory research suggests that vitamin D boosts immune system function by activating T cells that recognize and attack cancer cells. In this study, we wanted to determine if these two phenomena are related: Does vitamin D’s role in the immune system account for the lower rates of [CRC] in people with high circulating levels of the vitamin?”
Ogino and colleagues performed a nested case-control study using 318 patients with CRC and 624 matched controls with no cancer identified within cohorts from two large prospective studies, the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. All participants had blood samples drawn between 1989 and 1995. They assessed the association of prediagnostic plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and risk of CRC subtypes according to the degree of lymphocytic reaction.
They found that the association of plasma 25(OH)D with risk for CRC subtypes differed by the degree of intratumoral periglandular reaction (P=.001). High 25(OH)D level was associated with lower risk of CRC subtype with high-level reaction (highest vs. lowest tertile; OR=.1; 95% CI, 0.03-0.35), but not with CRC subtypes with absent (P=0.55) or lower-level reaction (P=.93). Similarly, the association between plasma 25(OH)D and CRC risk differed by CD3+ T-cell density (P=.03), but when adjusted it did not reach statistical significance.
“This is the first study to show evidence of the effect of vitamin D on anti-cancer immune function in actual patients, and vindicates basic laboratory discoveries that vitamin D can interact with the immune system to raise the body’s defenses against cancer,” Ogino said in the release. “In the future, we may be able to predict how increasing an individuals’ vitamin D intake and immune function can reduce his or her risk of [CRC].”
Disclosure: Chan reports previous consulting relationships with Bayer Healthcare, Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer.
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