The Chemoprotective Role of Vitamin D in Skin Cancer: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Introduction Research in mice showed that vitamin D receptor deficiency was correlated with an increased rate of non-melanoma skin cancer. Therapeutic supplemental vitamin D has also been reported to reduce cell growth in both melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer. This paper aims to describe the existing research studies that discuss the potential and role of vitamin D in the management of skin cancer. Methods Articles were searched from three databases (PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus) and manual search. 18 articles were included. These were further divided into in vivo and in vitro studies. The literature search was based on the following Patients, Intervention, Control, and Outcome (PICO) criteria: Patients with any types of skin cancer; Vitamin D and their derivates as the intervention; placebo or standard regimen as control, and survival rate or response rate as primary outcome. Results From the three databases, we obtained 802 studies. Prior to screening of the literature obtained, several studies were excluded. In the eligibility assessment, seven studies were excluded due to their outcomes being not eligible for analysis, and two studies were excluded due to inaccessible full texts. The remaining 18 studies were included. Five studies had a clinical research design (randomized controlled trial or interventional study), which use vitamin D3 as vitamin D derivatives and the results showed that the administration of vitamin D3 reduces the proliferation of skin cancer cells. Similar results were also reported in studies with pre-clinical research designs, either in vivo or in vitro, where six were in vivo studies and nine studies were in vitro studies. Conclusion Our literature review revealed that that vitamin D derivatives, such as 1,25(OH)2D3 or 20(OH)D3 can effectively reduce the proliferation of skin cancer cells by contributing in the inhibition of cell growth and development, highlighting vitamin D’s role as good prognostic factor.

Nutritional Factors: Benefits in Glaucoma and Ophthalmologic Pathologies

“…The mechanisms involved include elevating the levels of anti-inflammatory cytokines while lowering the levels of proinflammatory cytokines. It is also indicated as a therapeutic option in the management of diabetes mellitus [ 160 , 161 ] and skin diseases [ 162 ]. Cheng et al [ 163 ] conducted a systematic review and randomized control trial and observed that vitamin D can reduce negative emotions.…”

The Association of Vitamin D with Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer Risk: An Umbrella Review of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses

“…Our literature search yielded a total of 269 relevant articles. Ten SRs fulfilled our eligibility criteria and were included in the review, with 7 of those conducting meta-analysis of the data [13,14,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. The study selection process is depicted by the flow diagram (Figure 1).…”

“…Six of these studies directly investigated the association of Vit D and NMSC, mainly in Europe and the USA, one study investigated VitD and BCC formation while another study focused on several types of cancer including NMSC. The remaining two examined the chemoprotective role of VitD on BCC and SCC, with Sutedja et al testing its role in patients with confirmed malignancies [27]. Of note, Abdelwahab et al included 4 studies from Mahamat-Saleh et al in their review [22].…”

“…Heatmap for visualization of overlap, adjusted for structural missingness. The degree of overlap of primary studies between pairs of reviews (CCA = 0% represents no overlap of primary studies [white color], CCA = 100% represents complete overlap of primary studies between the SRs [deep green color]) [13,14,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] Odds ratios (with 95% CI) of the outcomes of interest are analyzed and presented below, as forest plots, along with core information of the overview (Tables 2-4). Odds ratios (with 95% CI) of the outcomes of interest are analyzed and presented below, as forest plots, along with core information of the overview (Tables 2-4).…”

“…Gandini et al discovered a protective effect in the highest quantile for cutaneous melanoma, but when NMSC was incorporated in the analysis no indication of a possible association remained [14]. Sutedja et al investigated the chemoprotective properties of VitD after administration in patients diagnosed with skin malignancies [27]. Three out of four studies reported a potential protective effect displaying a trend in reducing the incidence rates of NMSC and inducing tumor regression.…”