Examining the Vitamin D Status of Children With Solid Tumors

Abstract

Objective: Our aims were to compare the vitamin D status of children with and without cancer and to examine the possible correlation between vitamin D levels in children with cancer before initiating treatment and prognosis.

Method: We compared the data of 173 children with cancer with those of 569 children without cancer.

Results: We measured a significant difference (p = 1.34E–08) between the vitamin D levels of children with cancer before treatment and children without cancer. There was a significant correlation between the initial vitamin D levels of children with cancer and the prognosis (p = 0.016, odds ratio = 51.33) at 5% significance.

Conclusions: The average vitamin D level was 19.76% lower in the population with cancer compared with the average of the control group, and we found a correlation between the lower vitamin D levels in children with cancer and the adverse prognosis. We suggest that supplying vitamin D is reasonable and a prospective study of vitamin D in pediatric patients with cancer is recommended.

Keywords:

• Vitamin D
• pediatric oncology
• supplementation
• oncology prognosis

Acknowledgments

This paper would not have been completed without the outstanding professional assistance of Dr. Levente Herényi, Dr. Zoltán Erdélyi, Dr. Barna Vásárhelyi, Dr. Dezső Schuler, Dr. Fruzsina Hernold, and Dr. Ivett Anna Fekete.