06.01.10
Nutraceutical: Vitamin K
Indication: Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
Source: Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, April 2010.
Research: This study enrolled 603 patients who were newly diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma as well as 1007 matched cancer-free “control” participants. Researchers asked the participants to answer a food questionnaire about their usual intake of more than 120 food items two years prior to their cancer diagnosis or enrollment into the study (controls). They also asked about use of a variety of supplements. Vitamin K intake was estimated from this data.
Results: While there was a clear trend showing that a greater intake of vitamin K from dietary sources was associated with a lower risk of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the use of vitamin K supplements presented a slightly different picture. Increasing intake of vitamin K from supplements did protect against Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, but reached a point where the highest intake offered no reduction in risk. “The significance of this finding is unclear,” according to researchers, “but suggests that taking high doses of supplements is unlikely to be helpful.”
