Vitamin D levels affect the body's response to anti-cancer immunotherapy: Study

New research indicates that for patients with advanced skin cancer, it may be important to maintain normal vitamin D levels when receiving immunotherapy medications called immune checkpoint inhibitors. The findings are published by Wiley online in CANCER.

Vitamin D has many effects on the body, including regulation of the immune system. To see whether levels of vitamin D might impact the effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibitors, investigators analyzed the blood of 200 patients with advanced melanoma both before and every 12 weeks during immunotherapy treatment.

A favorable response rate to immune checkpoint inhibitors was observed in 56.0% of patients in the group with normal baseline vitamin D levels or normal levels obtained with vitamin D supplementation, compared with 36.2% in the group with low vitamin D levels without supplementation. Progression‐free survival-the time from treatment initiation until cancer progression-in these groups was 11.25 and 5.75 months, respectively.

Lead author Łukasz Galus said,“Of course, vitamin D is not itself an anti-cancer drug, but its normal serum level is needed for the proper functioning of the immune system, including the response that anti-cancer drugs like immune checkpoint inhibitors affect.”

Reference:

Vitamin D supplementation increases objective response rate and prolongs progression-free time in advanced melanoma patients undergoing anti-PD1 therapy,Cancer, DOI: 10.1002/cncr.34718