Keightley Amen

Cancer Nursing Today nonprod

New research presented at the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting suggests an association between plasma concentrations of vitamin D and circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in patients with breast cancer.&ldquo;CTCs contribute to the metastatic cascade and represent an independent survival predictor in breast cancer,&rdquo; wrote the authors, led by Michal Mego, of the Comenius University and National Cancer Institute in Bratislava, Slovakia. &ldquo;Vitamin D has pleiotropic effects, and its low concentrations are associated with infections, cancer, but also other pathologic conditions.&rdquo;The study assessed 91 patients with stage I-III primary breast cancer, based on data available in the biobank of the National Cancer Institute in Slovakia. Patients&rsquo; blood samples were taken at the time of surgery. The samples were analyzed, and the researchers sought possible correlations between plasma vitamin D levels and CTCs.The samples showed CTCs in 30 patients (33%). Of those patients, 14 (15.4%) had detectable CTCs with epithelial characteristics, 13 (14.3%) had CTCs with an epithelial-to-mesenchymal&nbsp;phenotype, and three had peripheral blood with both subtypes.The patients who had detectable CTCs also had significantly lower levels of vitamin D (8.50 &plusmn; 3.89 &micro;g/L) compared to patients who did not have detectable CTCs (9.69 &plusmn; 3.49 &micro;g/L). The researchers did not find any other associations between vitamin D levels and other patient or disease characteristics. In addition, patients who had vitamin D levels above the median had better overall survival.The authors believe this is the first report of a correlation between plasma vitamin D concentrations and CTCs in people with breast cancer. &ldquo;We suggest that vitamin D could play a direct role in tumor dissemination and its supplementation might affect metastatic cascade,&rdquo; the authors wrote. &ldquo;Alternatively, decreased vitamin D could be a consequence and hence a biomarker of a more invasive disease.&rdquo;They recommended additional studies to confirm the results and establish a cause-and-effect relationship in the association.

Study Finds Association Between Vitamin D and Circulating Cancer Cells

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New research presented at the 2022 ASCO Meeting suggests an association between plasma concentrations of vitamin D and circulating tumor cells in patients with breast cancer.

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