Retrospective Cohort Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Sep 15, 2016; 8(9): 688-694
Published online Sep 15, 2016. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v8.i9.688
Association between serum vitamin D levels and gastric cancer: A retrospective chart analysis
Neil Vyas, Rafael Ching Companioni, Melik Tiba, Hassan Alkhawam, Carmine Catalano, Robert Sogomonian, Joel Baum, Aaron Walfish
Neil Vyas, Hassan Alkhawam, Carmine Catalano, Robert Sogomonian, Department of Internal Medicine, Elmhurst Hospital Center, Elmhurst, NY 11373, United States
Rafael Ching Companioni, Melik Tiba, Joel Baum, Aaron Walfish, Department of Gastroenterology, Elmhurst Hospital Center, Elmhurst, NY 11373, United States
Author contributions: Vyas N performed the research; Vyas N wrote and proofread the manuscript; Vyas N, Companioni RC, Tiba M and Alkhawam H designed the research study; Alkhawam H performed data analysis and statistics; Alkhawam H, Catalano C and Sogomonian R contributed new variables and statistics; Baum J and Walfish A proofread the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai IRB.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent waived by Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai IRB.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors have no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: No data available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Neil Vyas, MD, Department of Internal Medicine, Elmhurst Hospital Center, 79-01 Broadway, Elmhurst, NY 11373, United States. neil.vyas@mssm.edu
Telephone: +1-347-5638628 Fax: +1-718-3344000
Received: March 26, 2016
Peer-review started: March 27, 2016
First decision: May 13, 2016
Revised: June 9, 2016
Accepted: July 11, 2016
Article in press: July 13, 2016
Published online: September 15, 2016
Abstract
AIM

To determine whether there is an increased risk of gastric adenocarcinoma associated with vitamin D deficiency (VDd).

METHODS

A retrospective case control study was performed of all patients diagnosed with gastric adenocarcinoma between 2005 and 2015. After we excluded the patients without a documented vitamin D level, 49 patients were included in our study.

RESULTS

The average age of patients with gastric adenocarcinoma and documented vitamin D level was 64 years old (95%CI: 27-86) and average vitamin D level was 20.8 mg/dL (95%CI: 4-44). Compared to a matched control group, the prevalence of VDd/insufficiency in patients with gastric adenocarcinoma was significantly higher than normal vitamin D levels (83.7% vs 16.3%). Forty-one patients (83.7%) with adenocarcinoma showed VDd/insufficiency compared to 18 (37%) patients with normal vitamin D level without gastric cancer (OR: 8.8, 95%CI: 5-22, P value < 0.0001). The average age of males with gastric adenocarcinoma diagnosis was 60 years old vs 68 years old for females (P = 0.01). Stage II gastric adenocarcinoma was the most prevalent in our study (37%).

CONCLUSION

We reported a positive relationship between VDd and gastric adenocarcinoma, that is to say, patients with decreased VDd levels have an increased propensity for gastric adenocarcinoma.

Keywords: Gastric cancer, Adenocarcinoma, Vitamin D

Core tip: In recent years, vitamin D deficiency (VDd) has been associated with several gastrointestinal malignancies largely mediated by vitamin D receptors. It affects multiple cellular processes such as inhibiting differentiation, metastasis, proliferation and inducing apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. All these mechanisms support vitamin D’s anti-cancer role. VDd removes the tumorigenic activity that it elicits from regulating cell cycle, inhibiting cellular proliferation, angiogenesis and molecular signaling. Several studies have revealed that vitamin D3 substantially promotes apoptosis in undifferentiated gastric malignant cells, specifically HCG-27. A retrospective research was conducted to find an association between vitamin D serum levels and gastric cancer.