Plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels, vitamin D intake, and pancreatic cancer risk or mortality: a meta-analysis

Xi Zhang; Xuan-Zhang Huang; Wen-Jun Chen; Jian Wu; You Chen; Cong-Cong Wu; Zhen-Ning Wang

doi:10.18632/oncotarget.18888

Plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels, vitamin D intake, and pancreatic cancer risk or mortality: a meta-analysis

Oncotarget. 2017 Jun 29;8(38):64395-64406. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.18888. eCollection 2017 Sep 8.

Authors

Xi Zhang^#¹, Xuan-Zhang Huang^#¹, Wen-Jun Chen¹, Jian Wu¹, You Chen², Cong-Cong Wu¹, Zhen-Ning Wang³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy, The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children's Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Lucheng, Wenzhou 325027, P.R. China.
² Department of Pediatric Dentistry, The Wenzhou Dental Hospital, Lucheng, Wenzhou 325027, P.R. China.
³ Department of Surgical Oncology and General Surgery, The First Hospital of China Medical University, Heping, Shenyang 110001, P.R. China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: The associations between vitamin D status, including plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels and vitamin D intake, and pancreatic cancer risk and mortality are inconsistent. The aims of this study are to evaluate the antitumor and therapeutic effects of vitamin D status for pancreatic cancer patients.

Methods: A literature search for relevant studies was conducted using PubMed and Embase databases. Risk ratio (RR), hazard ratio (HR), and 95% confidence interval (CI) were used as the effect measures. All statistical analyses were performed using Stata software 12.0.

Results: Our results indicated that high plasma 25(OH)D levels were inversely associated with pancreatic cancer mortality without significant heterogeneity (HR=0.81, 95% CI=0.68-0.96). However, high plasma 25(OH)D levels could not reduce pancreatic cancer risk (RR=1.02, 95% CI=0.66-1.57). Moreover, vitamin D intake was also not associated with pancreatic cancer risk (RR=1.11, 95% CI=0.67-1.86).

Conclusions: Our results indicate that high plasma 25(OH)D levels were significantly associated with improved survival in pancreatic cancer patients. However, there were no significant associations between vitamin D intake or plasma 25(OH)D levels and pancreatic cancer risk.

Keywords: 25-hydroxyvitamin D; mortality; pancreatic cancer; risk; vitamin D.