Prognostic effects of 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels in gastric cancer
Chao Ren, Miao-zhen Qiu, De-shen Wang, Hui-yan Luo, Dong-sheng Zhang, Zhi-qiang Wang, Feng-hua Wang, Yu-hong Li, Zhi-wei Zhou and Rui-hua Xu
Journal of Translational Medicine 2012, 10:16 doi:10.1186/1479-5876-10-16, Published: 27 January 2012
Background
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.
Methods
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.
Results
The mean vitamin D levels of the 197 gastric patients was 49.85 +/- 23.68nmol/L, among whom 114(57.9%) were deficient in Vitamin D(<50nmol/L), 67(34%) were insufficient (50-75nmol/L) and 16(8.1%) were sufficient (>75nmol/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 ([greater than or equal to]50nmol/L) had a higher overall survival compared with the low vitamin D levels group (<50nmol/L)(P = 0.018). Multivariate analysis indicated that vitamin D levels were an independent prognostic factor of gastric cancer (P = 0.019).
Conclusions Vitamin D deficiency may be associated with poor prognosis in gastric cancer.
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