vitamin D

Study finds major anti-inflammatory immune activity that favors oral cancer tumors

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: MELISA Institute A collaborative research led by immunologist Estefania Nova-Lamperti from the Universidad de Concepción (Chile), with a branch of researchers from MELISA Institute and other international academic centers, made progress in the understanding of molecular mechanisms preventing an effective antitumor immune response in oral cancer; The latter due to the production of chemical mediators that induce an anti-inflammatory regulatory response that favors tumor development through the vitamin D signaling pathway. The study was published in Frontiers in Immunology on May 7, 2021. Oral cancer, 90% of which corresponds to the squamous cell type, is a neoplasm with a high mortality and morbidity rate, mainly because the diagnosis is made in late stages when metastases already exist, and where treatment produces serious physical and functional sequel among survivors. It is well known that the immune system plays a key role in the development of cancer, either by stimulating pathways that play an anti-tumor role or, conversely, by generating an anti-inflammatory environment that allows the tumor to grow and be spread. The main biological agents of the immune system are lymphocytes or T cells, which have different functions or phenotypes. In cancer, the presence of regulatory T cells (Tregs) and helper T cells type 2 (Th2) are associated with a worse prognosis, whereas the responses of helper T cells type 1 (Th1) within tumors, in general, show a better prognosis. Dr. Nova-Lamperti points out that a key question in oral cancer is how an anti-inflammatory microenvironment is induced, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2021-06-10T07:40:12-07:00June, 2021|Oral Cancer News|

Study finds major anti-inflammatory immune activity that favors oral cancer tumors

Source: medicalxpress.com Author: Melisa Institute A collaborative research led by immunologist Estefania Nova-Lamperti from the Universidad de Concepción (Chile), with a branch of researchers from MELISA Institute and other international academic centers, made progress in the understanding of molecular mechanisms preventing an effective antitumor immune response in oral cancer; The latter due to the production of chemical mediators that induce an anti-inflammatory regulatory response that favors tumor development through the vitamin D signaling pathway. The study was published in Frontiers in Immunology on May 7, 2021. Oral cancer, 90% of which corresponds to the squamous cell type, is a neoplasm with a high mortality and morbidity rate, mainly because the diagnosis is made in late stages when metastases already exist, and where treatment produces serious physical and functional sequel among survivors. It is well known that the immune system plays a key role in the development of cancer, either by stimulating pathways that play an anti-tumor role or, conversely, by generating an anti-inflammatory environment that allows the tumor to grow and be spread. The main biological agents of the immune system are lymphocytes or T cells, which have different functions or phenotypes. In cancer, the presence of regulatory T cells (Tregs) and helper T cells type 2 (Th2) are associated with a worse prognosis, whereas the responses of helper T cells type 1 (Th1) within tumors, in general, show a better prognosis. Dr. Nova-Lamperti points out that a key question in oral cancer is how an anti-inflammatory microenvironment is induced, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2021-06-02T06:14:11-07:00June, 2021|Oral Cancer News|

Adapting the science of supplements and cancer prevention

Source: www.cancer.gov Author: Carmen Phillips Numerous studies suggest that avoiding excess weight, exercising regularly, and eating a diet heavy on fruits and vegetables decreases the risk of many diseases, including cancer. But as the expanding obesity epidemic has shown, there are major obstacles to getting broad swaths of people to adopt such a healthful lifestyle. So, for many years, cancer researchers have investigated whether specific nutrients—those that epidemiologic and animal model studies have suggested could sway cancer’s course—could decrease cancer risk. Much has been learned from this work, researchers in the field say, but, as is the case with treatment, each new discovery points to new areas of focus and other potential avenues of progress. With promising bioactive compounds in the pipeline, many prevention researchers are focused on figuring out not just whether something like sulforaphane, a natural compound found in broccoli and broccoli sprouts, can kill cancer cells in a test tube or animal model—which it does, quite well—but how, at the molecular level, it accomplishes this task, whether there are some cancer cells that are more likely to respond to it, and whether there are ways of discerning early on that the intervention is having its intended effect. Prevention: A Complex Matter A number of supplements have been tested in large prevention trials, including vitamins A, C, and E; selenium; beta-carotene; and folic acid. At least one trial has demonstrated a reduction in cancer deaths with a combination of supplements, while several others found no reduction or even [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-12-17T19:42:35-07:00December, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Mayo Clinic and collaborators find vitamin D levels associated with survival in lymphoma patients

Source: www.eurekalert.org Author: press release A new study has found that the amount of vitamin D in patients being treated for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma was strongly associated with cancer progression and overall survival. The results will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology in New Orleans. "These are some of the strongest findings yet between vitamin D and cancer outcome," says the study's lead investigator, Matthew Drake, M.D., Ph.D., an endocrinologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. "While these findings are very provocative, they are preliminary and need to be validated in other studies. However, they raise the issue of whether vitamin D supplementation might aid in treatment for this malignancy, and thus should stimulate much more research." The researchers' study of 374 newly diagnosed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patients found that 50 percent had deficient vitamin D levels based on the commonly used clinical value of total serum 25(OH)D less than 25 ng/mL. Patients with deficient vitamin D levels had a 1.5-fold greater risk of disease progression and a twofold greater risk of dying, compared to patients with optimal vitamin D levels after accounting for other patient factors associated with worse outcomes. The study was conducted by a team of researchers from Mayo Clinic and the University of Iowa. These researchers participate in the University of Iowa/Mayo Clinic Lymphoma Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE), which is funded by the National Cancer Institute. The 374 patients were enrolled in an epidemiologic study designed to [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-12-07T16:58:37-07:00December, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Vitamin D for cancer prevention: global perspective

Source: Ann Epidemiol. 2009 Jul 1;19(7):468-483 Author: CF Garland, ED Gorham, AR Mohr, FC Garland Purpose: Higher serum levels of the main circulating form of vitamin D, 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D), are associated with substantially lower incidence rates of colon, breast, ovarian, renal, pancreatic, aggressive prostate and other cancers. Methods: Epidemiological findings combined with newly discovered mechanisms suggest a new model of cancer etiology that accounts for these actions of 25(OH)D and calcium. Its seven phases are disjunction, initiation, natural selection, overgrowth, metastasis, involution, and transition (abbreviated DINOMIT). Vitamin D metabolites prevent disjunction of cells and are beneficial in other phases. Results/Conclusions: It is projected that raising the minimum year- round serum 25(OH)D level to 40 to 60 ng/mL (100–150 nmol/L) would prevent approximately 58,000 new cases of breast cancer and 49,000 new cases of colorectal cancer each year, and three fourths of deaths from these diseases in the United States and Canada, based on observational studies combined with a randomized trial. Such intakes also are expected to reduce case-fatality rates of patients who have breast, colorectal, or prostate cancer by half. There are no unreasonable risks from intake of 2000 IU per day of vitamin D3, or from a population serum 25(OH)D level of 40 to 60 ng/mL. The time has arrived for nationally coordinated action to substantially increase intake of vitamin D and calcium.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-10-18T18:41:45-07:00October, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

The Vitamin D difference

Source: www.curetoday.com Author: Diana Steele Plain old vitamin D might finally be ready for its day in the sun. New research is shedding light on the leading role that this vitamin may play in preventing cancer and in keeping tumors in check. Vitamin D isn’t technically a vitamin, since it’s produced in the body as a result of exposure to sunlight (“vitamins” are essential to life but by definition can be obtained only outside the body, through diet or supplements). It’s only when we don’t get enough sun that our bodies don’t make enough vitamin D and we need to get it from other sources. But while one of those sources, milk, is fortified with enough vitamin D to prevent the bone disease rickets in children, dietary sources—even a multivitamin—don’t provide nearly enough D to help prevent cancer, many scientists now say. New findings are showing that vitamin D acts as a sentinel to help regulate cell growth and prevent a cell from becoming malignant, says Boston University Medical Center researcher Michael Holick, PhD, MD. “And that’s why we think that you need an adequate vitamin D level throughout your entire life, and that [anytime] you become vitamin D-deficient, you put yourself at increased risk of potentially developing a malignancy later in life, because you’ve lost the policing ability of vitamin D to help keep cell growth in check.” The prescription? Sensible sun exposure for your skin type, plus vitamin D supplements. The payback? Greatly reduced risk of colon, breast, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-10-16T09:37:19-07:00October, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Vitamin D for cancer prevention: global perspective

Source: Ann Epidemiol. 2009 Jul 1;19(7):468-483, Authors: CF Garland, ED Gorham, AR Mohr, FC Garland Abstract: Purpose: Higher serum levels of the main circulating form of vitamin D, 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D), are associated with substantially lower incidence rates of colon, breast, ovarian, renal, pancreatic, aggressive prostate and other cancers. Methods: Epidemiological findings combined with newly discovered mechanisms suggest a new model of cancer etiology that accounts for these actions of 25(OH)D and calcium. Its seven phases are disjunction, initiation, natural selection, overgrowth, metastasis, involution, and transition (abbreviated DINOMIT). Vitamin D metabolites prevent disjunction of cells and are beneficial in other phases. Results/Conclusions: It is projected that raising the minimum year- round serum 25(OH)D level to 40 to 60 ng/mL (100150 nmol/L) would prevent approximately 58,000 new cases of breast cancer and 49,000 new cases of colorectal cancer each year, and three fourths of deaths from these diseases in the United States and Canada, based on observational studies combined with a randomized trial. Such intakes also are expected to reduce case-fatality rates of patients who have breast, colorectal, or prostate cancer by half. There are no unreasonable risks from intake of 2000 IU per day of vitamin D3, or from a population serum 25(OH)D level of 40 to 60 ng/mL. The time has arrived for nationally coordinated action to substantially increase intake of vitamin D and calcium.

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-09-10T19:09:15-07:00September, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Dietary vitamin D and cancers of the oral cavity and esophagus

Source: Annals of Oncology 2009 20(9):1576-1581 Authors: L. Lipworth et al. Background: Data on the association between vitamin D and upper digestive tract neoplasms are limited. Methods: In two case–control studies in Italy, we examined the relation between dietary vitamin D intake and squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus (SCCE; 304 cases) and oral/pharyngeal cancer (804 cases). Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated by multiple logistic regression. Results: Adjusted ORs for SCCE and oral/pharyngeal cancer were 0.58 (95% CI 0.39–0.86) and 0.76 (95% CI 0.60–0.94), respectively, for the highest tertile of vitamin D intake. Using a reference group of those in the highest tertile of vitamin D who were never/former smokers, ORs were 8.7 (95% CI 4.1–18.7) for SCCE and 10.4 (95% CI 6.9–15.5) for oral/pharyngeal cancer among heavy smokers in the lowest vitamin D tertile; similarly, compared with those in the highest tertile of vitamin D who drank <3 alcoholic drinks/day, corresponding ORs were 41.9 (95% CI 13.7–128.6) for SCCE and 8.5 (95% CI 5.7–12.5) for oral/pharyngeal cancer, among heavy alcohol drinkers in the lowest vitamin D tertile. Conclusion: We observed inverse associations between dietary vitamin D intake and risk of SCCE and, perhaps, oral/pharyngeal cancer, which were most pronounced among heavy current smokers and heavy consumers of alcohol. Authors: L. Lipworth1,2, M. Rossi3, J. K. McLaughlin1,4, E. Negri3, R. Talamini5, F. Levi6, S. Franceschi7 and C. La Vecchia3,4,8 Authors' affiliations: 1 International Epidemiology Institute, Rockville, MD 2 Department of Preventive Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-08-25T04:04:14-07:00August, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

New model suggests role of low vitamin D in cancer development

Source: news.biocompare.com Author: Staff In studying the preventive effects of vitamin D, researchers at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, have proposed a new model of cancer development that hinges on a loss of cancer cells' ability to stick together. The model, dubbed DINOMIT, differs substantially from the current model of cancer development, which suggests genetic mutations as the earliest driving forces behind cancer. "The first event in cancer is loss of communication among cells due to, among other things, low vitamin D and calcium levels," said epidemiologist Cedric Garland, DrPH, professor of family and preventive medicine at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, who led the work. "In this new model, we propose that this loss may play a key role in cancer by disrupting the communication between cells that is essential to healthy cell turnover, allowing more aggressive cancer cells to take over." Reporting online May 22, 2009 in the Annals of Epidemiology, Garland suggests that such cellular disruption could account for the earliest stages of many cancers. He said that previous theories linking vitamin D to certain cancers have been tested and confirmed in more than 200 epidemiological studies, and understanding of its physiological basis stems from more than 2,500 laboratory studies. "Competition and natural selection among disjoined cells within a tissue compartment, such as might occur in the breast's terminal ductal lobular unit, for example, are the engine of cancer," Garland said. "The DINOMIT model provides new avenues for preventing and improving the [...]

Charlotte Parker2009-06-02T20:52:32-07:00May, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Guidelines needed for optimal vitamin D supplementation in cancer patients

Source: www.medscape.com Author: Roxanne Nelson A growing amount of research suggests that vitamin D may be beneficial to cancer patients. In addition, laboratory, ecologic, and epidemiologic studies have shown some evidence that higher levels of vitamin D might lower the risk for colon, breast, endometrial, and prostate cancers. But although the "evidence is intriguing," an editorial published online April 6 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology speculates about how oncologists should disseminate this information in clinical practice. Editorialist Pamela J. Goodwin, MD, from the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital and Princess Margaret Hospital, in Toronto, Ontario, offers some suggestions to oncologists who are being asked to advise their patients about whether they should take vitamin D supplements. She emphasizes that her suggestions are of an interim nature. "As results of ongoing and planned research become available, many unanswered questions will be resolved, and more definitive recommendations that can be embraced by oncologists will be forthcoming," she notes in her editorial. Low Levels Noted in Breast Cancer Patients Interest in vitamin D has risen exponentially, Dr. Goodwin explains. The total number of published studies relating to vitamin D more than doubled from 1990 to November 2008, articles relating to cancer and vitamin D nearly tripled, and those specifically relating to breast cancer and vitamin D increased almost 6-fold. The editorial was prompted by a report, published in the same issue of the Journal, that, at baseline, 74% of premenopausal women with breast cancer who received adjuvant chemotherapy and participated [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-04-17T11:53:20-07:00April, 2009|Oral Cancer News|