Low serum vitamin D levels may be associated with inferior survival in patients with follicular lymphoma, a new study published online early in the Journal of Clinical Oncology has shown.
Because recent literature have reported a potential association between high vitamin D and improved lymphoma prognosis, researchers sought to investigate the impact of pretreatment vitamin D on follicular lymphoma outcome.
For this study, researchers evaluated data from three SWOG clinical trials that were conducted between 1998 and 2008 and the LYSA PRIMA trial conducted between 2004 and 2007. In the SWOG studies, previously untreated patients with follicular lymphoma received CHOP chemotherapy plus rituximab or iodine-131 tositumomab. In the LYSA cohort, previously untreated patients with follicular lymphoma received rituximab plus chemotherapy. Researchers also looked at serum samples of patients’ vitamin D levels.
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Results showed that after a median follow-up of 5.4 years, the adjusted progression-free survival hazard ratio for the SWOG cohort was 1.97 (95% CI: 1.10 – 3.53) and the overall survival hazard ratio was 4.16 (95% CI: 1.66 – 10.44) for those who were vitamin D deficient. For the LYSA cohort, statistical significance was not reached.
The authors note that further studies are warranted to assess the effects of vitamin D supplementation in this patient population.
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