06.30.20
In a review published in the journal Cancer Biology, researchers suggested that there could be an optimal level of vitamin D that can be attained in order to fight against a number of various cancers, including colon, breast, prostate, and hematological cancers, which are known to occur at higher frequencies among populations with a low vitamin D status.
The most active vitamin D metabolite is responsible for a biological mechanism targeting approximately 1,000 target genes in a large proportion of human tissues and cell types. The primary role of vitamin D is believed to be the control of energy metabolism later shifting to modulate innate and adaptive immunity, as well as to regulate calcium and bone homeostasis.
The authors believe that the properties of vitamin D associated with immune function and anti-cancer are linked because vitamin D signaling is associated with both of the genetic pathways used by immune and cancer cells to proliferate.
“Since rapidly growing immune and cancer cells both use the same pathways and genes for controlling their proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis, not surprisingly, vitamin D signaling changes these processes also in neoplastic cells,” the authors wrote. “Thus, anti-cancer effects of vitamin D may derive from managing growth in differentiation and immunity.”
Evidence that vitamin D may hold anti-cancer benefits dates back to 40 years ago, when the first epidemiological study of its kind suggested that vitamin D may protect against colorectal cancer, due to the fact that scientists at the time linked increased sun exposure to a lower incidence of this type of cancer. Follow-up intervention trials further discovered that vitamin D, from an observational level, appeared to mitigate the risk of other types cancers, as well.
VITAL, a randomized controlled trial that enrolled over 25,000 participants with a history of cancer, evaluated the effects of supplementing with 2000 IU of vitamin D daily in an effort ot prevent cancer. While the primary analysis did not report a significant risk reduction, a secondary analysis suggested a benefit after excluding early follow-up data and subgroups of individuals in cancer incidence and/or mortality. Three follow-up trials also observed a statistical benefit, the authors wrote.
The authors also included in their meta-analysis a breakdown of the plethora of cancers which vitamin D may play an active role in preventing, and the extent to which researchers have begun to understand the mechanisms by which this is possible, through its ability to repress immune cells and the carcinomas which proliferate through the same genetic pathways, and that cancers with a number of pathological and genetic subtypes will pose the greatest challenge to further research.
They’ve stated that there is a need for more research into the mechanistic link between vitamin D and colorectal cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer (which they said was a less compelling case), hematological malignancies such as leukemias, lymphomas, and multiple myeloma (which often show poorer prognoses in those with low vitamin D status), and more.
“Epigenomic and transcriptomic analyses as well as numerous experimental studies in a variety of cancer systems provided large sets of strong data that jointly indicate a protective action of vitamin D signaling against several types of cancer,” the authors concluded. “Most convincing molecular data exist for CRC [colorectal carcinoma] and AML [acute myeloid leukemia]. This results from the regulation of a high number of genes that control the proliferation, survival, differentiation, migration, and communication of cancer cells and stromal cells, such as fibroblasts, adipocytes, immune, and endothelial cells. Conceivably, the lack of concordant positive clinical data in large randomized controlled trials may be due to a lack of sub-analysis of disease cohorts as well as short follow-up.”
“Vitamin D is a major regulator of signaling in human cells, which displays a long list of protective homeostatic effects in cultured cells and animal models of cancer. Thus, it contributes to maintain and defend the normal physiology of the organism against the apparition and development of neoplasias.”
The most active vitamin D metabolite is responsible for a biological mechanism targeting approximately 1,000 target genes in a large proportion of human tissues and cell types. The primary role of vitamin D is believed to be the control of energy metabolism later shifting to modulate innate and adaptive immunity, as well as to regulate calcium and bone homeostasis.
The authors believe that the properties of vitamin D associated with immune function and anti-cancer are linked because vitamin D signaling is associated with both of the genetic pathways used by immune and cancer cells to proliferate.
“Since rapidly growing immune and cancer cells both use the same pathways and genes for controlling their proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis, not surprisingly, vitamin D signaling changes these processes also in neoplastic cells,” the authors wrote. “Thus, anti-cancer effects of vitamin D may derive from managing growth in differentiation and immunity.”
Evidence that vitamin D may hold anti-cancer benefits dates back to 40 years ago, when the first epidemiological study of its kind suggested that vitamin D may protect against colorectal cancer, due to the fact that scientists at the time linked increased sun exposure to a lower incidence of this type of cancer. Follow-up intervention trials further discovered that vitamin D, from an observational level, appeared to mitigate the risk of other types cancers, as well.
VITAL, a randomized controlled trial that enrolled over 25,000 participants with a history of cancer, evaluated the effects of supplementing with 2000 IU of vitamin D daily in an effort ot prevent cancer. While the primary analysis did not report a significant risk reduction, a secondary analysis suggested a benefit after excluding early follow-up data and subgroups of individuals in cancer incidence and/or mortality. Three follow-up trials also observed a statistical benefit, the authors wrote.
The authors also included in their meta-analysis a breakdown of the plethora of cancers which vitamin D may play an active role in preventing, and the extent to which researchers have begun to understand the mechanisms by which this is possible, through its ability to repress immune cells and the carcinomas which proliferate through the same genetic pathways, and that cancers with a number of pathological and genetic subtypes will pose the greatest challenge to further research.
They’ve stated that there is a need for more research into the mechanistic link between vitamin D and colorectal cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer (which they said was a less compelling case), hematological malignancies such as leukemias, lymphomas, and multiple myeloma (which often show poorer prognoses in those with low vitamin D status), and more.
“Epigenomic and transcriptomic analyses as well as numerous experimental studies in a variety of cancer systems provided large sets of strong data that jointly indicate a protective action of vitamin D signaling against several types of cancer,” the authors concluded. “Most convincing molecular data exist for CRC [colorectal carcinoma] and AML [acute myeloid leukemia]. This results from the regulation of a high number of genes that control the proliferation, survival, differentiation, migration, and communication of cancer cells and stromal cells, such as fibroblasts, adipocytes, immune, and endothelial cells. Conceivably, the lack of concordant positive clinical data in large randomized controlled trials may be due to a lack of sub-analysis of disease cohorts as well as short follow-up.”
“Vitamin D is a major regulator of signaling in human cells, which displays a long list of protective homeostatic effects in cultured cells and animal models of cancer. Thus, it contributes to maintain and defend the normal physiology of the organism against the apparition and development of neoplasias.”
