Role of vitamin D supplementation for primary prevention of cancer: Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Varun Samji, Tarek Haykal, Yazan Zayed, Inderdeep Gakhal, Vijay Veerapaneni, Michelle Obeid, Babikir Kheiri, Sunil Badami, Ghassan Bachuwa, Rizwan Danish; Hurley Medical Center/Michigan State University, Flint, MI; Genesee Cancer and Blood Disease, Flint, MI, Role of vitamin D supplementation for primary prevention of cancer: Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials, J Clin Oncol 37, 2019 (suppl; abstr 1534)
2019 ASCO Annual Meeting, Abstract No: 1534, Poster Session (Board #28)
Background
In the United States cancer is the second leading cause of mortality, as such, primary prevention of cancer is a major public health concern. Vitamin D supplementation has been studied as a primary prevention method for multiple diseases including cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, diabetes mellitus and cancer. The role of aspirin as primary prevention of cancer is still controversial. With fast emergence of large randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in that regards, we aimed to evaluate the efficacy of Vitamin D supplementation as primary prophylaxis for cancer.
Methods
A comprehensive electronic database search was conducted for all RCTs where comparison of Vitamin D supplementation versus placebo for the prevention of any type of disease with at least 3 years of Vitamin D supplementation was used and where cancer incidence or mortality was reported. The primary outcome was cancer-related mortality and cancer incidence. We calculated risk ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using a random-effects model at the longest follow-up.
Results
We included 10 RCTs with 79,055 total patients, mean age of 68.07 years, a female percentage of 78.02% and a minimum follow-up of 4 years and more. Vitamin D was associated with significant reduction of cancer-related mortality compared with placebo (RR 0.87; 95% CI: 0.79-0.96; P = 0.05: I2= 0%). Compared with placebo, Vitamin D was not associated with significant reduction of cancer incidence (RR: 0.96; 95% CI: 0.86-1.07; P = 0.46; I2= 31%).
Conclusions
Our study highlights that the use of Vitamin D supplementation for primary prevention of cancer is important as it does decrease cancer-related mortality once cancer is diagnosed, however it has no role or effect on cancer incidence.