Chemotherapy might be amplified by vitamin D


Vitamin D has been shown to enhance many types of Chemotherapy

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"
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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

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.

Chemotherapy toxicity not associated with vitamin D levels – June 2012

The relationship between vitamin D and chemotherapy-induced toxicity - a pilot study.
Kitchen D, Hughes B, Gill I, O'Brien M, Rumbles S, Ellis P, Harper P, Stebbing J, Rohatgi N.
Br J Cancer. 2012 Jun 26;107(1):158-60. doi: 10.1038/bjc.2012.194. Epub 2012 May 15.
Leaders in Oncology Care (LOC), 95 Harley Street, London W1G 6AF, UK. dkitchen@theloc.com

BACKGROUND:
There are anecdotal data that lower levels of vitamin D may be associated with increased levels of toxicity in individuals receiving chemotherapy; we therefore wished to investigate this further.

METHODS:
From a cohort of over 11 000 individuals, we included those who had vitamin D levels (serum 1,25(OH)(2)D3) measured before and during chemotherapy. They were analysed for side effects correlating Chemotherapy Toxicity Criteria with vitamin D levels, normalising data for general markers of patient health including C-reactive protein and albumin.

RESULTS: A total of 241 (2% of the total cohort) individuals entered the toxicity analysis.
We found no overall difference in toxicity effects experienced by patients depending on whether they were vitamin D depleted or had sufficient levels (P=0.78).

CONCLUSION: This pilot study suggests routine vitamin D measurement during treatment does not appear to be necessary in the management of chemotherapy-induced toxicity.

PMID: 22588559


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
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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!!
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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
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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.
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- ‎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)
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The relationship between vitamin D and chemotherapy-induced toxicity – a pilot study - June 2012
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3389405/    Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki
Image
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  • 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

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Vitamin D may increase survival for breast cancer patients
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/314017.php Nov 2016
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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
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List of Cancer Chemotherapy Drugs 213 drugs as of Nov 2017
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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.


28+ VitaminDWiki pages having CHEMOTHERAPY in the title

This list is automatically updated

Items found: 28
Title Modified
Breast Cancer chemotherapy improved if able to suppress a vitamin D gene (CYP24A1) – May 2023 18 Mar, 2023
Chemotherapy might be amplified by vitamin D 05 Mar, 2023
Poor chemotherapy results if low vitamin D (leukemia in this case) – May 2022 17 Aug, 2022
Trial: Can 50,000 IU of Vitamin D weekly help with Breast Cancer Chemotherapy - Early 2021 21 Dec, 2020
3X reduction in Chemotherapy dose by Photodynamic Priming of Vitamin D Receptor (mice) – March 2020 30 Mar, 2020
Chemotherapy hair loss – prevented or treated by Vitamin D, US patent application – Nov 2019 24 Nov, 2019
increased Chemotherapy survival if OK vitamin D (Hodgkin Lymphoma 1.8 X in this study) – Nov 2019 20 Nov, 2019
Relapses of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) – 1 in 5 are due to genes mutated by chemotherapy – Nov 2019 10 Nov, 2019
Omega-3 reduced by 4X the interruption of Cervical Cancer chemotherapy due to toxicity – RCT June 2019 18 Jun, 2019
Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer lowers Vitamin D levels – Oct 2018 25 Sep, 2018
Vitamin D prevents breast cancer, reduces BC mortality, and reduces BC chemotherapy problems – Sept 2018 21 Aug, 2018
Chemotherapy drugs often reduce Vitamin D levels, restoring levels helps– Aug 2018 16 Aug, 2018
Cisplatin chemotherapy dose size might be reduced by Omega-3 – Jan 2018 06 Jan, 2018
Breast Cancer chemotherapy 2.7 X less likely to work if low vitamin D – Dec 2017 22 Dec, 2017
Breast Cancer Chemotherapy initially decreases vitamin D levels – May 2012 13 Dec, 2017
Breast Cancer chemotherapy 2.7 X more likely to be successful if not vitamin D deficient – Dec 2017 13 Dec, 2017
Cancer Chemotherapy and vitamin D – Review March 2013 14 Jul, 2017
Chemotherapy might be augmented with Vitamin D – Jan 2017 14 Jul, 2017
Breast Cancer Chemotherapy dropped Vitamin D levels by 6 nanograms – Nov 2015 14 Jul, 2017
Hypothesis – Chemotherapy can be aided by Vitamin D – March 2016 14 Jul, 2017
Breast cancer chemotherapy benefits from highest vitamin D levels – June 2014 03 Mar, 2016
Off Topic: Cannabinoids as Cancer chemotherapy – Sept 2014 26 Jan, 2016
If vitamin D levels were not changed, toxicity to chemotherapy did not vary with levels – May 2012 11 Jan, 2016
Aromatase inhibitor chemotherapy after breast cancer not associated with vitamin D levels – Dec 2011 24 May, 2015
Vitamin D2 patent granted to prevent hair loss during chemotherapy – 2002 11 May, 2015
Chemotherapy (cisplatin) and vitamin D synergistically stop stomach cancer – Feb 2014 28 Feb, 2014
Vitamin D levels dropped 3 ng during cancer chemotherapy – May 2012 08 Jan, 2014
Vitamin D Shows Potential in Natural Chemotherapy April 2010 30 Apr, 2010

short URL = is.gd/chemod

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