Daily Vitamin D Intake Reduces Cancer Mortality

Daily intake of Vitamin D supplementation could reduce cancer mortality in the population by twelve percent. This was the result of an evaluation of 14 studies conducted at the German Cancer Research Center with 105,000 participants. Vitamin D deficiency is widespread worldwide and is particularly common among cancer patients. Averaged over the year, the vitamin D blood levels of about 15 percent of German adults are below the threshold for a pronounced vitamin D deficiency.

The potential effects of vitamin D supplementation and the development or prognosis of cancer have already been investigated in numerous studies (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Vitamin D and Cancer Prevention

Go to source). However, previous studies on cancer mortality have yielded very different results.

By re-evaluating all previous studies on the topic, researchers wanted to help produce robust results on this issue, which is so relevant to population health. The findings of the analysis were published in the journal Ageing Research Reviews.

Is Vitamin D3 Supplementation Effective on Cancer Mortality

To investigate the effectiveness of vitamin D3 on cancer mortality in the population and the survival of cancer patients, researchers conducted a systematic literature search that identified 14 studies with a total of nearly 105,000 participants (2^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Influence of vitamin D on cancer risk and treatment: Why the variability?

Go to source). They considered only studies of the highest quality whose participants had been randomly assigned to the vitamin D3 arm or the placebo arm.

When all 14 studies were pooled, no statistically significant results emerged. However, when the studies were divided according to whether vitamin D3 was taken daily in a low dose or higher doses administered at longer intervals, a large difference was seen.

In the four studies with the infrequent higher doses, there was no effect on cancer mortality. In contrast, in the summary of the ten studies with daily dosing, the researchers determined a statistically significant twelve percent reduction in cancer mortality.

They observed this twelve percent reduction in cancer mortality after untargeted vitamin D3 administration to individuals with and without vitamin D deficiency. Therefore, it is assumed that the effect is significantly higher for those people who are vitamin D deficient (3^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Efficacy of vitamin D3 supplementation on cancer mortality: Systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Go to source).

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The better efficacy of daily doses of vitamin D3 by the more regular bioavailability of the active agent, the hormone 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D, which is only produced by reactions of vitamin D in the body and can presumably inhibit tumor growth.

A more detailed analysis of the studies with daily intake further revealed that people aged 70 and older benefited most from vitamin D3 therapy. In addition, the effect was most evident when vitamin D intake was started before the cancer diagnosis.

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This work underlines the great potential of vitamin D3 administration in the prevention of cancer deaths. Regular intake at low doses is associated with almost negligible risk and very low cost.

References:

1. Vitamin D and Cancer Prevention - (https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/diet/vitamin-d-fact-sheet)
2. Influence of vitamin D on cancer risk and treatment: Why the variability? - (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6201256/)
3. Efficacy of vitamin D3 supplementation on cancer mortality: Systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials - (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S156816372300082X?via%3Dihub)

Source-Eurekalert