Overview Lung cancer and vitamin D

Items in both categories Lung Cancer and Meta-analysis are listed here:

May 2014 - - - - - - - -

Proposal that previous smokers get free CT scans to detect lung cancer May 2014

Smoking 1 pack every 4 days = 30 packs/year

• Expected Medicare cost $9 billion per year for 11 million CT scans = $800 per scan
• CT scans expected to reduce lung cancer deaths by 20% by providing early detection
• Risks: overdiagnosis, a high frequency of false-positive results and increased radiation exposure

Cost of CT and Vitamin D for a 20% reduction in lung cancer deaths

• CT: early detection: Cost $800/year
• Vitamin D prevention: Cost $ 5/year
  Note: no proof for Vitamin D and lung cancer as of May 2014, but proof for many other cancers and diseases
  Cancer patients 64% less likely to die if have a high level of vitamin D – Dec 2011
  Vitamin D would also prevent many other forms of Cancer and health problems

Estimation of the cost of CT scan per pack

• Assume same number years of smoking at CT scanning
• Assume 400 packs per year (> the minimum of 32/year)
• Cost of scan to the public per pack = $2

A small section of a PDF Prevention of lung cancer by vitamin D etc- July 2010

Introduction

Lung cancer remains the most common cause of cancer death in the United States and worldwide. About 80?90% of cases are smoking-related and smoking cessation programs are of great importance in reducing lung cancer risk. However, the lifetime risk for lung cancer remains elevated even in ex-smokers. Chemoprevention holds the promise to further reduce this risk and thus to decrease lung cancer incidence and mortality.

Over the last decades, most chemoprevention trials for lung cancer have yielded negative outcomes. Population-based studies suggest that high intake of certain foods such as soy, red wine or green vegetables may be associated with decreased cancer risk. Because of these observations and their general safety, a plethora of natural compounds is currently being studied for the chemoprevention of cancer. In this review we discuss promising in vitro and in vivo data of novel natural compounds, their interference with molecular mechanisms responsible for lung cancer development and potential implications for their further preclinical and clinical investigation.

Calciferol

Vitamin D deficiency is a common phenomenon in the developed world, with studies suggesting that as many as 75% of American adults and adolescents are vitamin D deficient 38. Numerous epidemiologic studies have found links between vitamin D deficiency and can- cer, most notably breast, colon, and lung cancer, with a relative risk reduction in vitamin D-exposed versus non-exposed subjects ranging between 25?50% 39.

A recent update of the Women’s Health Study showed a lower risk for the development of breast cancer (Hazard Ratio 0.65) in premenopausal women with the highest vs. the lowest amount of vitamin D consumption 40. Cholecalciferol, the active form of vitamin D (Figure 1), is a steroid hormone. Forming a complex with its receptor, it acts as a transcription factor that regulates cell cycle control by regulating p21 and cdk expression. It furthermore leads to transcription of E-cadherin, the loss of which is a hallmark of epithelial-mesemchymal transition associated with proliferation and invasion of the malignant cell. In biopsies of human bronchial epithelium and lung cancer progenitor lesions, a progressive loss of cytoplasmic vitamin D receptor staining was observed with increasing histologic grade suggesting the involvement of the vitamin D signaling pathways in lung carcinogenesis 41.

In a randomized study of vitamin D and calcium vs. placebo in postmenopausal women at risk for osteoporosis, a statistically significant reduction in the risk of developing any cancer was observed for women who took vitamin D and calcium 42. Sample size and cancer incidence rates, how- ever, were low with very large confidence intervals so that these findings should only be considered to be hypothesis generating.

Vitamin D deficiency has also been associated with chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD), a major risk factor for the development of lung cancer. In the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), the pulmonary function parameters FEV1 and FVC were significantly lower in subjects with the lowest quintile of vitamin D levels when compared with the highest quintile 43. Certain polymorphisms in the vitamin D binding protein (VDBP) seem to be protective against COPD 44. Studies examining vitamin D supplementation for the prevention of lung cancer are currently ongoing (clinicaltrials.gov).
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See also Lung cancer decreased by 7.5% for every 1260 feet in altitude

Yet another reason to think that Lung Cancer might be reduced with vitamin D

• Lung Cancer Cells Destroy Cancer-Fighting Vitamin D- 2009
• Vitamin D Council 40+ items on Lung Cancer
• Life Extension Magazine March 2007 - Vitamin D and Cancers such as Lung Cancer
• Prevention of Lung Cancer: Future Perspective with Natural Compounds

See also Vitamin D Life

• All items in category Lung Cancer and vitamin D 54 items
• Smoking reduces vitamin D - many studies an overview
• One third of lung disease patients in China had less than 4ng of vitamin D – May 2012
• Low vitamin D strongly related to death due to tobacco cancer, but not others – March 2013
• Lung, lung cancer, asthma, COPD, and Vitamin D – July 2013
• vitamin D treats lung cancer - in animals -patent 2005
• Cancer patients 64% less likely to die if have high level of vitamin D – Dec 2011 has the following chart

PubMed for Lung Cancer and vitamin D includes

• Vitamin D status and the risk of lung cancer: a cohort study in Finland free PDF, small study - helped women, but not men
• Could ultraviolet B irradiance and vitamin D be associated with lower incidence rates of lung cancer?-2008
  • Lower levels of UVB irradiance were independently associated with higher incidence rates of lung cancer in 111 countries.

Cancer intervention trials using Vitamin D

• 355 (not just lung cancer) as of June 2019

Large Study: No Link Between Vitamin D, Lung Cancer Risk May 2018

For those with < 41 nmol level of Vitamin D

• "In a study by an international research group, pooled analysis of circulating vitamin D concentrations in prediagnostic blood from 5000 case-control pairs showed there was no dose-response relationship between select concentrations of vitamin D and lung cancer risk overall (odds ratio OR, 0.98)."
• "These findings are in sharp contrast to results from two previous meta-analyses that suggested that high concentrations of vitamin D may protect against lung cancer, the study authors point out"
• The following is a clue - none of the lung Cancer patients had a good level of vitamin D (>75 nmol)
  "The study authors note that the analysis included participants whose vitamin D concentrations were between 7 and 41 nmol/L."

Lung Cancer detection and analysis by Machine Learning software (nothing about Vitamin D)

GOOGLE AI TOOL IDENTIFIES A TUMOR'S MUTATIONS FROM AN IMAGE Wired Sept 2018
Accuracy: 97 percent with test images, 83-97% with actual hospital images

Lung Cancer 4X less for some races (smoking 10 cig. per day) - Aug 2018

Tobacco biomarkers and genetic/epigenetic analysis to investigate ethnic/racial differences in lung cancer risk among smokers
Smoking changes gene activation to different amount in different races

 Download the PDF from Vitamin D Life

Factoids from The Body by Bill Bryson, 2019

• 80 percent of all men smoked by the late 1940s—yet only some of them developed lung cancer.
• The upshot was that by the late 1950s the average smoker was taking in more tar and nicotine than he had before filters were invented.
• American Medical Association took 15 years to endorse the surgeon general’s finding.
  [+]
  • can anticipate getting change from AMA about Vitamin D will take decades - Comment by founder of Vitamin D Life
• As late as 1973, Nature ran an editorial backing women’s smoking during pregnancy on the grounds that it calmed their stress.
• Nearly one-third of people below the poverty line (in the US) still smoke, and the habit continues to account for one-fifth of all deaths.

Why is the number of lung cancers in people who have never smoked increasing?

• Jan 26, 2021
  • " “If lung cancer in never-smokers were a separate entity, it would be in the top 10 cancers in the U.S.” for both incidence and mortality."
  • "A 2019 study in South Korea diagnosed lung cancer in 0.45% of never-smokers, compared to 0.86% of smokers. "
    • but the US never screens for lung cancer in never-smokers

Perhaps many cancers are increasing: toxins, poor food, less vitamin D, radon, family history of lung cancer . . .