Researchers with the Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) recently published the results of meta-analyses focusing on Vitamin D insufficiency and food fortification. In Neidermaier et al.’s study, published in the European Journal of Epidemiology, the authors estimated the cancer mortality reduction already achieved by current fortification policies and the potential for further reductions if all countries had adequate fortification.
Niedermaier and other corresponding authors report that “Vitamin D is an essential hormone for bone metabolism and is involved in many other physiological processes.” They go on to add that “daily supplementation with vitamin D (with 400–2000 international units (IU) per day) lowers cancer mortality (but not cancer incidence) by approximately 13% in older adults.” In fact, they share, “meta-analyses of observational studies found better survival in cancer patients for a number of cancers, including colorectal, breast, prostate, and pancreatic cancer.”
Vitamin D Insufficiency
Prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency is high in European countries, particularly in the older population and non-western immigrants, and is highest in winter and spring due to insufficient vitamin D production in the skin under sun exposure during the winter months.
Europe's Food Fortification
An alternative and comparably effective way of enhancing vitamin D status is with the fortification of foods with vitamin D. Various European countries already have policies to fortify several food groups to some extent.
Study Results
As reported by the study authors, “We estimated that approximately 27,000 cancer deaths were prevented by established fortification policies in 2017, with the potential to prevent an additional 129,000 cancer deaths by implementing vitamin D fortification to the optimal degree in all European countries.
“In summary, our study suggests that more widespread vitamin D food fortification policies in European countries might make a major contribution to lowering the burden of cancer deaths in Europe, with the potential to prevent approximately 129,000 additional cancer deaths (more than 113,000 in the EU) and approximately 1.2 million (1 million in the EU) years of life lost per year, corresponding to approximately 9% (10% in the EU) of cancer deaths and years of life lost.”
Funding
Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. The PEN project is funded by the JPI HDHL, a research and innovation initiative of EU member states and associated countries. The funding agencies supporting this work are (in alphabetical order of participating countries): France: Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA); Germany: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF); Ireland: Health Research Board (HRB); Italy: Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR); The Netherlands: The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw); New Zealand: The University of Auckland, School of Population Health; Norway: The Research Council of Norway (RCN); Poland: The National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR).
About the German Cancer Research Center
DKFZ is the largest biomedical research institute in Germany and a member of the Helmholtz Association of National Research Centers. In over 90 divisions and research groups, our more than 3,000 employees, of which more than 1,200 are scientists, are investigating the mechanisms of cancer, are identifying cancer risk factors and are trying to find strategies to prevent people from getting cancer.They are developing novel approaches to make tumor diagnosis more precise and treatment of cancer patients more successful.
Study Authors
Tobias Niedermaier, Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
Thomas Gredner, Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
Sabine Kuznia, Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
Medical Faculty Heidelberg, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
Ben Schöttker, Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
Network Aging Research (NAR), University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
Ute Mons, Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
Cancer Prevention Unit, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
Jeroen Lakerveld, Department of Epidemiology and Data Science, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Wolfgang Ahrens, Department of Epidemiological Methods and Etiological Research, Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology - BIPS, Bremen, Germany
Institute of Statistics, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Hermann Brenner, Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
Network Aging Research (NAR), University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
Division of Preventive Oncology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), Heidelberg, Germany
German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/german-researchers-meta-analyses-showcases-the-potential-of-vitamin-d-in-preventing-cancer-deaths-3d939cb8