Vitamin D Improves Bone Mineral Density in Prostate Cancer

Certain patients with prostate cancer receiving ADT had better outcomes regarding bone mineral density.

Vitamin D supplements demonstrated significant benefits in certain patients with prostate cancer, a study published in the journal Cancer showed.

Patients with prostate cancer receiving androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) may experience bone mineral density loss from the therapy, researchers noted. However, patients who were also vitamin D deficient showed the most benefit, the researchers found.

Specifically, respective patients who were vitamin D deficient and took the supplements had reduced hip and femoral neck bone loss.

“Essentially, [the vitamin D supplements] slowed the rate of bone loss to less than half,” explained Luke Peppone to CURE®.

Peppone is the corresponding author of the study and associate professor in the Department of Surgery, Cancer Control at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York.

“[The study findings are] important in the real world setting because this is something that patients can act on today,” Peppone said. “Patients can go to their oncologist and get [vitamin D] levels tested and get supplementation. It can possibly help the course of their therapy, save their bone health, mobility and physical function, which [ADT] is very rough on.”

Researchers from the phase 2 study randomly assigned 59 patients into two groups. Each group received 600 international units of vitamin D with 1,000 milligrams of calcium per day. The first group received an additional 50,000 international units of vitamin D per week. Patients in the second group received a placebo for 24 weeks, the researchers stated.

In the study, 29 patients in the vitamin D group had lost 1.5% bone mineral density in the hips. The 30 patients in the low-dose group had a bone mineral density loss of 4.1%.

Patients in the vitamin D group lost 1.7% of bone density at the femoral neck. The bone density loss was 4.4% in patients in the low-dose group, the study showed.

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The quality of life may also improve with the increase in bone health via vitamin D, Peppone noted.

“Not only does vitamin D help bone, but it also helps muscle,” he said. “We've seen some signals in our pilot study that it helps physical function and functional wellbeing and physical wellbeing, which are two of the key components of quality of life.”

Peppone encouraged patients with prostate cancer receiving ADT to talk about vitamin D levels with their doctor. He emphasized that patients with vitamin D deficiencies gain the most benefits from high-dose vitamin D.

“If patients’ levels are normal, they’re probably not going to derive [as much] benefit from high-dose vitamin D because they’re at where they’re at,” he explained. “But if they’re low, there’s a good chance they’ll derive a moderate to large benefit from this high-dose vitamin D.”

Peppone revealed that a phase 3 trial recently launched, with approximately 366 patients with prostate cancer.

The purpose of the phase 3 trial will be to determine whether high-dose vitamin D continues to provide benefits. Researchers are evaluating how vitamin D maintains bone strength, reduces falling and reduces fatigue in men receiving ADT.

According to the listing on ClinicalTrials.gov, the newer trial will also randomly assign patients into two groups.

Patients in the first group will receive high-dose vitamin D and will receive blood draws and DEXA bone density scans. In the second group, patients will receive a placebo throughout the study. They will also receive blood draws and DEXA scans, similarly to the first group.

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