Prognostic effects of 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels in gastric cancer

• Published in: Journal of translational medicine 2012-01, Vol.10 (1), p.16-16, Article 16
• Main Authors: Ren, Chao, Qiu, Miao-zhen, Wang, De-shen, Luo, Hui-yan, Zhang, Dong-sheng, Wang, Zhi-qiang, Wang, Feng-hua, Li, Yu-hong, Zhou, Zhi-wei, Xu, Rui-hua
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Cancer; Care and treatment; China - epidemiology; Complications and side effects; Elisa; Female; Gastric cancer; Humans; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Male; Middle Aged; Multivariate Analysis; Nutrition; Prognosis; Proportional Hazards Models; Risk factors; Stomach cancer; Stomach Neoplasms - blood; Stomach Neoplasms - diagnosis; Stomach Neoplasms - mortality; Stomach Neoplasms - pathology; Studies; Survival Rate; Vitamin D; Vitamin D - analogs & derivatives; Vitamin D - blood; Vitamin D deficiency; Vitamin D Deficiency - blood; Vitamin D Deficiency - complications
• ISSN: 1479-5876; 1479-5876
• DOI: 10.1186/1479-5876-10-16

Results from large epidemiologic studies on the association between vitamin D and gastric cancer are controversial. Vitamin D significantly promotes apoptosis in the undifferentiated gastric cancer cell, but the prognostic effects of its levels are unknown. 197 gastric carcinoma patients who received treatment in the cancer centre of Sun Yat-sen University from January 2002 to January 2006 were involved in the study. The stored blood drawn before any treatment was assayed for 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels. The clinicopathologic data were collected to examine the prognostic effects of vitamin D. The mean vitamin D levels of the 197 gastric patients was 49.85 ± 23.68 nmol/L, among whom 114(57.9%) were deficient in Vitamin D(< 50 nmol/L), 67(34%) were insufficient (50-75 nmol/L) and 16(8.1%) were sufficient (> 75 nmol/L). Clinical stage (P = 0.004) and lymph node metastasis classification (P = 0.009) were inversely associated with vitamin D levels. The patients with high vitamin D levels group (≥ 50 nmol/L) had a higher overall survival compared with the low vitamin D levels group (< 50 nmol/L)(P = 0.018). Multivariate analysis indicated that vitamin D levels were an independent prognostic factor of gastric cancer (P = 0.019). Vitamin D deficiency may be associated with poor prognosis in gastric cancer.