Association between the Serum Vitamin D Concentration and All-Cause and Cancer-Specific Mortality in Individuals with Cancer.

Abstract

We aimed to explore the association between the serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration and all-cause and cancer-specific mortality in 2,463 adult patients with cancer from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007-2018. We linked mortality data from the survey to the National Death Index records up to December 31, 2019. During a median follow-up period of 70 months, 567 patients died, of whom 194 died due to cancer. Multivariate adjustment was performed for demographic characteristics, lifestyle, dietary factors, 25-hydroxyvitamin D testing period, and cancer site. Higher serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations up to 75 nmol/L significantly reduced the risk of all-cause and cancer-specific mortality. When 25-hydroxyvitamin D quartiles were compared, the multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios were 0.59 (95% confidence interval: 0.42, 0.84) for all-cause mortality (P for trend <0.001) and 0.48 (95% confidence interval: 0.29, 0.79) for cancer-specific mortality (P for trend = 0.037) in quartile 3 (79.3-99.2 nmol/L). A threshold of 75 nmol/L for serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D may represent an intervention target to reduce mortalities in patients with cancer, and maintaining 25(OH)D concentrations within range (79.3-99.2 nmol/L) is beneficial for reducing all-cause and cancer-specific mortality.