Vitamin D Insufficiency May Be Linked to Worse Outcomes in Follicular Lymphoma

New research suggests that low levels of vitamin D are associated with worse outcomes in patients with follicular lymphoma who undergo combination chemotherapy.

Jennifer L. Kelly, MPH, PhD, of the Wilmot Cancer Center at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, looked at patients from SWOG clinical trials S9800, S9911, S0016 and from the Lymphoma Study Association PRIMA trial.

These trial participants all had previously untreated follicular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma who were then treated with R-CHOP combination immunochemotherapy.

Researchers found that patients with vitamin D insufficiency had a progression-free survival (PFS) as much as two times worse than patients with higher vitamin D levels. Lower vitamin D levels was also found to be associated with a much worse overall survival rate.

“Our observations indicate that vitamin D insufficiency is relevant to outcomes in follicular lymphoma," the team wrote."And the impact on survival confirmed in two independent cohorts suggests that it is a robust predictive factor for patients with follicular lymphoma being treated with R-CHOP therapy."

“Future research is needed to determine whether vitamin D represents a proxy for health status or whether supplementation with vitamin D may be an attractive therapeutic option to ultimately change the natural history of this still incurable disease."

The team reported their findings in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.