Far fewer Pancreatic Cancer deaths at stage III and IV with more than 20 ng vitamin D – Sept 2013

Vitamin D deficiency and prognostics among patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

J Transl Med. 2013 Sep 8;11(1):206.
Cho M, Peddi PF, Ding K, Chen L, Thomas D, Wang J, Lockhart AC, Tan B, Wang-Gillam A.

BACKGROUND:The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among patients with cancer has been previously reported. Because vitamin D is fat soluble, patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma may have an especially high risk of vitamin D deficiency in association with ongoing and varying degrees of malabsorption. However, little is known about the correlation between vitamin D status and prognosis in these patients.

METHODS: We conducted a retrospective review of vitamin D status in patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma who were treated at Siteman Cancer Center. Patients' demographic information, clinical staging at the time of vitamin D assessment, vitamin D levels, and survival data were collected. Vitamin D deficiency was defined as a serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) level of less than 20 ng/mL, and vitamin D insufficiency was defined as a 25(OH)D level of between 20 ng/mL and 30 ng/mL.

RESULTS: Between December 2007 and June 2011, 178 patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma had their vitamin D levels checked at the time of initial visit at this center. Of these 178 patients, 87 (49%) had vitamin D deficiency, and 44 (25%) had vitamin D insufficiency. The median 25(OH)D level was significantly lower among nonwhite patients and among patients with stage I and II disease. A 25(OH)D level of less than 20 ng/mL was found to be associated with poor prognosis (p = 0.0019) in patients with stage III and IV disease.

CONCLUSIONS: Vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency were prevalent among patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma.
The vitamin D level appears to be prognostic for patients with advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma, and its effects should be further examined in a prospective study.

PMID: 24011168

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See also Vitamin D Life

• Restoring vitamin D levels to Pancreatic patients required up to 20000 IU daily – May 2012
• Even small increases in vitamin D decreased risk of pancreatic cancer – Nov 2011 >30 ng better than <20 ng
• All items in category Pancreatic Cancer 55 items
• Vitamin D and Pancreatic Cancer - Sept 2010.PDF file
• Overview all Cancers and vitamin D which contains the following chart

See also web

• Vitamin D Council on Pancreatic Cancer
• Nutrition and Pancreatic Cancer AnitCancer Research Jan 2014
  there is no evidence for benefit from vitamin D supplementation.: they were looking at a wide variety of nutrients via bibliographic searches