According to new research, taking vitamin D supplements can help prevent a potentially fatal side effect of a novel anti-cancer treatment. The findings were published early online in CANCER, an American Cancer Society (ACS) peer-reviewed journal.
Vitamin D is a nutrient that your body requires for healthy bone formation and maintenance. This is because your body can only absorb calcium, which is the fundamental component of bone, if you have enough vitamin D.
Many other biological functions in your body are also regulated by vitamin D. Its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and neuroprotective characteristics help the immune system, muscles, and brain cells work properly.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors assist the immune system recognize and battle cancer cells, and while they have helped a lot of people and extended their lives, they can also produce side effects including colitis, which is an inflammatory reaction in the colon.
“Immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced colitis can limit the use of such life-saving drugs leading to discontinuation of treatment. While it is one of the most common and severe adverse events of immunotherapy, there is a lack of understanding of the risk factors that could be modified to prevent colitis,” said Osama Rahma, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, in Boston.
Vitamin D supplementation should be tested further to determine if it could be a safe, easily accessible, and cost-effective approach towards preventing immunotherapy’s gastrointestinal toxicity and extending the effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment in cancer patients.
Osama Rahma
Immunotherapy is a cancer treatment that boosts your immune system’s ability to fight cancer. Your immune system aids in the battle against infections and other disorders. It is made up of white blood cells as well as lymphatic organs and tissues.
Immunotherapy is a biological treatment. Biological therapy is a method of cancer treatment that use compounds derived from live organisms. The evidence for vitamin D’s cancer-prevention potential is equivocal.
Dr. Rahma and his colleagues conducted research to see if taking vitamin D supplements could lessen the incidence of colitis in cancer patients using immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Previous research has revealed that vitamin D may alter the immune system in cases of autoimmune illnesses and inflammatory bowel disease, thus the team chose this approach.
Between 2011 and 2017, 213 individuals with melanoma who received immune checkpoint inhibitors were included in the study. Thirty-seven of these individuals (17%) developed colitis.
Sixty-six individuals (31%) in the research used vitamin D supplements before starting immune checkpoint inhibitor medication. After adjusting for confounding factors, patients who took vitamin D had a 65 percent lower risk of developing colitis.
These findings were confirmed in a second cohort of 169 patients, 49 (29%) of whom had colitis. Vitamin D supplementation was connected to a 54 percent lower risk of getting colitis in this validation group.
“Our findings of a link between vitamin D intake and reduced risk for colitis could potentially impact practice if validated in future prospective studies,” said Dr. Rahma.
“Vitamin D supplementation should be tested further to determine if it could be a safe, easily accessible, and cost-effective approach towards preventing immunotherapy’s gastrointestinal toxicity and extending the effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment in cancer patients.”
