Last Updated:  09/20/2009

The information in this column is intended for informational purposes only, and does not constitute medical advice or recommendations by the author.  Please consult with your physician before making any lifestyle or medication changes, or if you have any other concerns regarding your health.

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VITAMIN D & COLORECTAL CANCER SURVIVAL

  

Vitamin D is increasingly being looked at as a cancer prevention nutrient, as multiple prior clinical research studies have linked higher blood levels of this hormone-like vitamin, and calcium (which is regulated by Vitamin D), with a decreased risk of colon and rectal cancer, as well as other cancers.

 

Less well understood is the role of Vitamin D as a survival factor in patients who have already been diagnosed with colorectal cancer.  Now, a newly updated clinical research study from Harvard University, just published in the British Journal of Cancer, suggests that higher Vitamin D levels in colorectal cancer survivors may be associated with a significantly greater likelihood of surviving the third most common cause of cancer death in the United States.

 

The authors of this clinical research study analyzed volunteers within the massive Nurses’ Health Study.  A total of 1,107 volunteers were diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer, between 1986 and 2004, after joining this long-term prospective public health study.  Using a previously validated scoring system that accurately predicts Vitamin D levels in the blood, the researchers assessed the survival rates of these colorectal cancer patients as a function of their Vitamin D scores.  (It is important to note that Vitamin D scores were calculated prior to the diagnosis of colorectal cancer in these patient volunteers.)  The results were rather profound.

 

The Vitamin D scores for these 1,017 colorectal cancer patients were broken up into a five different ranges, and the patients with the highest Vitamin D scores were then compared with those in the lowest “quintile” with respect to cancer-related mortality and overall mortality.  This analysis revealed that patients with the highest Vitamin D scores were 50 percent less likely to die of colorectal cancer during the course of this study, and 38 percent less likely to die from all causes, when compared to the patients with the lowest Vitamin D scores.

 

While the exact mechanisms whereby Vitamin D and calcium may decrease the risk of colorectal cancer, and the risk of death following a diagnosis of colorectal cancer, are still being studied, there is already intriguing data showing that Vitamin D supplementation can “up-regulate” the activity of genes in both premalignant and malignant colon and rectal tumors that, in turn, increase the death rate of the abnormal cells that make up such tumors (through a pathway known as apoptosis).

 

While no nutrient or medication has been shown to prevent all colorectal cancers, or to cure all colon and rectal cancers once they develop, there is an increasing amount of high-quality clinical data suggesting that higher levels of Vitamin D in the blood are associated with a decreased risk of both premalignant and malignant colon and rectal tumors.  Now, based upon this new study’s results, it appears that higher Vitamin D levels may also be associated with improved survival following the diagnosis of colorectal cancer as well.  The impact of Vitamin D levels on colorectal cancer survival also mirror similar findings that I have recently reported on with respect to breast cancer (Breast Cancer Recurrence, Death & Vitamin D).

 

Look for a much more detailed discussion of the role of Vitamin D, and other dietary and nutritional factors, in cancer prevention in my forthcoming book, “A Cancer Prevention Guide for the Human Race.”

 

Disclaimer:  As always, my advice to readers is to seek the advice of your physician before making any significant changes in medications, diet, or level of physical activity

 

Dr. Wascher is an oncologic surgeon, a professor of surgery, a widely published author, and the Physician-in-Chief for Surgical Oncology at the Kaiser Permanente healthcare system in Orange County, California

  

 

(Anticipated Publication Date:  March 2010)

(Click above image for TV36 interview of Dr. Wascher)