Sean Moloughney06.15.09
Researchers concluded that cancer patients should undergo vitamin D screening after a recent study found high prevalence of deficiency among subjects regardless of nutritional status.
Conducted at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) researchers assessed 737 cancer patients (302 male and 435 female) between January and June of 2008.
Subjects were evaluated and assigned to one of three classes of nutritional status: well nourished, moderately malnourished and severely malnourished. The mean age at presentation was about 56 years (SD = 10.2) and the most common cancer types were lung (133, 18%), breast (131, 18%), colorectal (97, 13%), pancreatic (86, 12%), prostate (44, 6%) and ovarian (38, 5%).
“While emerging evidence suggests the protective role of vitamin D in cancer, vitamin D status is not routinely assessed in cancer patients despite the high prevalence of malnutrition in this population,” said Carolyn Lammersfeld, national director of nutrition for CTCA and a principal investigator in the study.
Before the study, researchers hypothesized that malnutrition could contribute to vitamin D deficiency and therefore expected mean serum 25-hydroxy-vitamin D [25(OH)D] levels to be significantly lower in malnourished oncology patients. However, contrary to what they expected, vitamin D deficiency was found to be prevalent in cancer regardless of nutritional status.
This study was presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting and publicly released on ASCO's website.
Conducted at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) researchers assessed 737 cancer patients (302 male and 435 female) between January and June of 2008.
Subjects were evaluated and assigned to one of three classes of nutritional status: well nourished, moderately malnourished and severely malnourished. The mean age at presentation was about 56 years (SD = 10.2) and the most common cancer types were lung (133, 18%), breast (131, 18%), colorectal (97, 13%), pancreatic (86, 12%), prostate (44, 6%) and ovarian (38, 5%).
“While emerging evidence suggests the protective role of vitamin D in cancer, vitamin D status is not routinely assessed in cancer patients despite the high prevalence of malnutrition in this population,” said Carolyn Lammersfeld, national director of nutrition for CTCA and a principal investigator in the study.
Before the study, researchers hypothesized that malnutrition could contribute to vitamin D deficiency and therefore expected mean serum 25-hydroxy-vitamin D [25(OH)D] levels to be significantly lower in malnourished oncology patients. However, contrary to what they expected, vitamin D deficiency was found to be prevalent in cancer regardless of nutritional status.
This study was presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting and publicly released on ASCO's website.