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Chemotherapy and vitamin D - many studies

Vitamin D enhances many chemotherapies
For some chemo, less is needed if higher vitamin D

  1. Then, if less chemo is given the body will not be stressed as much
  2. However, if same dose of chemo is given with higher Vitamin D the patient might die

Vitamin D has been shown to enhance many types of Chemotherapies

So, be careful about taking vitamin D IF your doctor is unwilling to reduce the amount of chemo to be given.
Chemo dosages were established for the majority of people who have low levels of vitamin D in their blood.
It appears that if you take the normal Chemo dose AND a good level of vitamin D in your blood you will get 2X the impact.
The impact varies with the type of Chemo, suggest that you search PubMed for "name of chemo" "Vitamin D"
- - - -
Update 2017 by Founder of VitaminDWiki
A friend of mine got Lung Cancer
I told him it was great to take extra vitamin D, PROVIDED the Chemo dose was monitored and reduced as needed.
Unfortunately the doctors did not adjust the dose until the finally noticed he had so few white blood cells that they could not be mseasured.

Chart by VitaminDwiki
see wikipage: http://www.vitamindwiki.com/tiki-index.php?page_id=396

Click here for 2017 update below on this page

Wonder how many chemo drugs vitamin D interacts with
Caring4Cancer

Carboplatin (Paraplatin) cancers of the ovary, head and neck, and lung
Cisplatin (Platinol, Platinol-AQ) cancers of the bladder, ovary, and testicles
Cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan, Neosar) lymphoma, breast cancer, and ovarian carcinoma
Docetaxel (Taxotere) breast cancer, lung, and prostate
Doxorubicin (Adriamycin) breast cancer, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma
Erlotinib (Tarceva) non small cell lung cancer
Etoposide (VePesid) cancers of the lung, testicles, leukemia, and lymphoma
Fluorouracil (5-FU) cancers of the colon, breast, stomach, and head and neck
Gemcitabine (Gemzar) cancers of the pancreas, breast, ovary, and lung
imatinib mesylate (Gleevec) chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML)
and gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST)
Irinotecan (Camptosar) cancers of the colon and rectum
Methotrexate (Folex, Mexate, Amethopterin) cancers of the breast, lung, blood, bone, and lymph system
Paclitaxel (Taxol, Abraxane) cancers of the breast, ovary, and lung
Sorafinib (Nexavar) advanced kidney cancer
Sunitinib (Sutent) gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) and kidney cancer
Topotecan (Hycamtin) cancers of the ovary and lung
Vincristine (Oncovin, Vincasar PFS) leukemia and lymphoma
Vinblastine (Velban) lymphoma and cancers of the testis and head and neck

Paclitaxel chemotherapy cause pains if low vitamin D, need less Paclitaxel if higher D – Sept 2024

The correlation between vitamin D and the occurrence of peripheral neuropathy induced by paclitaxel chemotherapy
Front Med (Lausanne). 2024 Sep 24:11:1466049. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1466049
Jialei Zhang 1, Xiaoling Zhang 2 3, Jie Wu 1

Introduction: Paclitaxel, a widely used chemotherapeutic agent for various cancers, induces peripheral neuropathy (PIPN) in approximately 80% of patients, severely affecting their quality of life. The role of vitamin D in pain perception has gained attention, but its correlation with PIPN remains unclear.

Methods: This study included 129 cancer patients who received adjuvant paclitaxel chemotherapy from January to June 2023. Neuropathic pain was assessed using the Douleur Neuropathique 4 Questions (DN4) questionnaire, and serum levels of vitamin D and glutathione (GSH) were measured to explore the correlation between vitamin D levels and neuropathic pain induced by paclitaxel chemotherapy.

Results: The results showed a negative correlation between vitamin D deficiency and the occurrence of neuropathic pain (Spearman correlation coefficient of -0.324, P < 0.001). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis revealed that the area under the vitamin D curve for neuropathic pain was 0.681. Furthermore, after paclitaxel chemotherapy, there was a significant decrease in GSH levels in the serum of patients, with a more pronounced decline in the vitamin D-deficient group.

Discussion: The findings of this study indicate that higher levels of vitamin D are negatively associated with the occurrence of paclitaxel-induced neuropathic pain, suggesting that vitamin D might protect against oxidative stress. This discovery is significant for clinical treatment as it may help physicians better understand the mechanisms of pain during paclitaxel therapy and provide new strategies for the prevention and treatment of such pain. It also suggests that modulating vitamin D levels could reduce the neurotoxicity of paclitaxel, thereby improving patients' quality of life and treatment compliance.

Calcitriol potentiates the anti-tumor activities of multiple chemotherapeutics agents including DNA-damaging agents cisplatin, carboplatin and doxorubicin; antimetabolites 5-fluorouracil, cytarabine, hydroxyurea, cytarabine and gemcitabine; and microtubule-disturbing agents paclitaxel and docetaxel

Cancer Chemotherapy and vitamin D – Review March 2013 has the following chart

Image
PDF is attached at the bottom of this page

See also VitaminDWiki

See also web

  • Keeping Your Hair in Chemo NYT March 2015
    Freeze scalp during chemo treatments - no mention that vitamin D also preserves hair during chemo

Update - Nov 2017

Googled: chemotherapy "vitamin d" - first entry is this VitaminDWiki page

Antioxidant supplements such as co enzyme Q10, selenium and the vitamins A, C and E can help to prevent cell damage
- VitaminDWiki comment - so Chemo doctors recommend NOT taking them!!

Treatment can last for anywhere from 3 to 6 months. During that time, you would be considered to be immunocompromised — not as able to fight infection. After finishing chemotherapy treatment, it can take anywhere from about 21 to 28 days for your immune system to recover.
http://www.breastcancer.org/tips/immune/cancer/chemo
- VitaminDWiki Comment: Even if you wait until chemo is done Vitamin D can probably help the immune system recover

Oct 2, 2008 - The odds of having severe vitamin D deficiency (25-OH vitamin D≤15 ng/ml) in a patient receiving chemotherapy was fourfold higher than a patient with colorectal cancer who never received chemotherapy or completed chemotherapy at least 3 months prior to their vitamin D assay.

- ‎2017 - In the patients who received chemotherapy (45% ), those with sufficient vitamin D levels had a statistically longer survival than those with deficient levels (p<0.002). Also the patients with sufficient levels, they were more likely to complete the 6 months of chemotherapy than those with deficient levels (p<0.006)

The relationship between vitamin D and chemotherapy-induced toxicity – a pilot study - June 2012
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3389405/   No such attachment on this page
Image

  • In a laboratory study, vitamin D3 was found to increase breast cancer cell death caused by radiotherapy from approximately 30% to 75%.
  • A 2016 study of 1,666 women in California found that higher levels of vitamin D at diagnosis were associated with improved survival, especially among premenopausal women.
  • A prospective study which used stored blood of breast cancer patients to measure Vitamin D levels found that women with deficient vitamin D levels had a significantly increased risk of distant recurrence and death compared with those with sufficient levels. The authors concluded that vitamin D deficiency may be associated with poor outcomes in breast cancer.
    http://foodforbreastcancer.com/articles/how-important-is-vitamin-d-before-and-after-breast-cancer-diagnosis%3F

Vitamin D may increase survival for breast cancer patients
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/314017.php Nov 2016

Appropriate vitamin D loading regimen for patients with advanced lung cancer - Oct 2016
20,000 IU a day for 14 days was not enough- full free PDF online
https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12937-016-0203-8

List of Cancer Chemotherapy Drugs 213 drugs as of Nov 2017

Cheno is a huge source of revenue to bigpharma Wikipedia
- VitaminDWiki comment -A patient needing less Chemo (due to Vitamin D) results in:

  • less income for the hospital: which is a function of cost of chemo and reduced days in hospital
  • Doctors/hospitals also get a large income from use of Chem drugs - they buy wholesale but bill retail
    Thus often getting an additional income of $2,000/patient/month
    We can anticipate lots of resistance to reducing chemo dose sizes as a result of having a good level of Vitamin D

VitaminDWiki recommends considering gut-friendly forms of vitamin D during chemotherapy

Chemotherapy/Radiation Therapy often upsets digestion Wikipedia
There are several forms of vitamin D for people with poor digestion

Image

Omega-3 looks promising to reduce/offset chemo and radiation therapy

Stock up on Vitamin D before surgery or at least before Chemo (provided doctor adjusts the chemo/radiation doses)

For many people 400,000 IU of vitamin D will be sufficient to get a good level (Some will need 2X or 3X more)

Days IU/day
40 days 10,000 IU
8 days 50,000 IU
2 days200,000 IU

Possible beneifts of having a good level of vitamin D before chemo starts

assuming that chemo dose is reduced
Less hair lost
Less nauseated
Less fatigue
Less recurrence of cancer
Less spread of cancer
Less chemo-brain
Less bruising, infection
Less weight gain
Less constipation/diarrhea
Less anemia
Less peripheral neuropathy
Less hearing loss
Less reduction in fertility
Fewer bone problems
Fewer heart problems
Fewer mouth sores
Live longer

Nice list of Chemo side effects

What if a chemo drug is amplfied by Vitamin D more than 2X?

Note: Currently no chemo drug is known to be amplified by vitamin D by more than 2X
But, if chemo dose for the drug is reduced by only 2X the resulting chemo drug + Vitamin D could potentially be deadly
Wonder if there is any data on Vitamin D levels when taking many chemo drugs
   Kaiser, Medicare, VA, etc.

11+ VitaminDWiki pages having CHEMO in the title

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Chemotherapy and vitamin D - many studies        
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