Association between pre-chemotherapy serum levels of vitamin D and clinicopathologic findings in gastric cancer

Background: to examine the serum levels of vitamin d in newly diagnosed gastric cancer (gc) patients compared with normal subjects and any possible association with prognostic variables. methods: one-hundred subjects (50 gc and 50 controls) were enrolled and serum vitamin d levels were assessed using elisa. based on two definitions, vitamin d was classified as a sufficient level (≥30 ng/dl) and optimal level (25-80 ng/dl). the χ^2 and unpaired t-test was used for data analysis with a significance level of 0.05. results: the mean serum levels of vitamin d in patients and controls were 26.86 (±14.6) and 31.72 (±13.4), respectively (p=0.09). the prevalence of vitamin d insufficiency and deficiency was higher in gc cases than controls (p=0.045 if sufficient level ≥30 and p=0.065 if sufficient level ≥25). according to histological grade analysis, grade 3 patients (poorly differentiated) were found with significantly lower vitamin d concentrations in serum than grade 1 and 2 subjects (22.25 vs 33.29 ng/dl, p=0.021). no significant differences were observed between the two groups in pathological tumor-node-metastasis (ptnm) stages, distant metastasis, and location of the tumor. conclusion: higher prevalence of vitamin d insufficiency and deficiency in gc patients may reflect its role in malignancy; however, further studies are needed to confirm this relationship and any possible benefits to the patients.