Abstract
Background: Data from animal and cell-line models suggest that vitamin D metabolism plays an important role in pancreatic tumor behavior. Although vitamin D deficiency has been implicated in numerous cancers, the vitamin D status of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer and the effect of baseline vitamin D levels on survival are unknown.
Methods: Participants in this correlative study (CALGB 151006) were enrolled in CALGB 80303, which was a randomized trial of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer that demonstrated no difference in overall survival (OS) among patients treated with gemcitabine plus placebo vs gemcitabine plus bevacizumab. We measured baseline serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) levels and examined associations between baseline 25(OH)D levels and progression- free survival and OS using the Cox rank score test. All statistical tests were two-sided.
Results: Of 256 patients with available serum, the median 25(OH)D level was 21.7 ng/mL (range 4 to 77). 44.5% of patients were vitamin D deficient (25[OH]D <20 ng/mL), and 32.4% were insufficient (25[OH]D ≥20 and <30 ng/mL). 25(OH) D levels were lower in black patients compared with white patients, and patients of other/undisclosed race (10.7 vs 22.4 vs 20.9 ng/mL, P < .001). Baseline 25(OH)D levels were not associated with PFS (HR = 1.00, 95% CI = 0.99 to 1.01, P = .60) or OS (HR = 1.00, 95% CI = 0.99 to 1.01, P = .95). Conclusion Vitamin D deficiency was highly prevalent among patients with a new diagnosis of advanced pancreatic cancer. Black patients had statistically significantly lower 25(OH)D levels than white patients. In this cohort of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer receiving gemcitabine-based chemotherapy, baseline 25(OH)D levels were not associated with PFS or OS.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Journal | Journal of the National Cancer Institute |
| Volume | 106 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 1 2014 |
Funding
This work was supported by a 2012 Young Investigator Award from The Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology to Dr. Van Loon; the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) (grant number K12HS021700) to Dr. Van Loon; and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (grant number K07CA140390-01) to Dr. Innocenti. The research for CALGB 80303 (Alliance) was supported, in part, by grants from the National Cancer Institute (CA31946) to the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology (Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, Chair) and to the Alliance Statistics and Data Center (Daniel J. Sargent, PhD, CA33601). The content of this manuscript is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NCI, AHRQ, or NIH.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Oncology
- Cancer Research
