The University of Iowa and the Mayo Clinic reported at the December annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology that they found an association between higher levels of Vitamin D and greater survival of individuals being treated for lymphoma. In the study funded by the National Cancer Institute the researchers measured the serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels in the sample of 374 patients newly diagnoses with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. They found that half had deficient serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels of less than 25 nanograms per milliliter. This group also had twice the rate of dying during the study period and 1 1/2 times the adjusted rate of disease progression than those with optimum levels of Vitamin D. This was the first study to look at lymphoma outcomes and vitamin D. The researchers concluded that although the results look promising for the use of Vitamin D supplements or periodic time in the sun in the treatment of lymphoma, these results need to be validated by other research studies.
