Can Vitamin D Supplementation Cut Incidence of Keratinocyte Cancer?
By Dermsquared Editorial Team | November 09, 2022
For older adults, vitamin D supplementation does not reduce the incidence of keratinocyte cancer (KC) or other actinic lesions, according to a study published in the November issue of the British Journal of Dermatology .
Sitwat Ali, from QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane, Australia, and colleagues examined the effect of vitamin D supplementation on the risk for developing KC using data from the D-Health Trial, involving Australians aged 60 years and older. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either vitamin D supplementation or placebo. KC outcomes were captured through linkage to a national dataset for 20,334 participants (95 percent).
The researchers found no reduction in the incidence of KC lesions treated by excision, the incidence of actinic lesions treated using other methods, or the time to first histologically confirmed KC excision with randomization to vitamin D supplementation. However, in a subgroup analysis, vitamin D was found to increase the incidence of KC excisions in adults aged 70 years and older.
"Routine supplementation with vitamin D, including in those at highest risk of KC, is unlikely to reduce the very high incidence seen in the Australian population," the authors write.
Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.