Serum levels of 25‐hydroxy‐vitamin D in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma: Making a case for chemoprevention

Objectives Serum level of vitamin D has been used as a predictor for cancer development. We intend to measure the baseline vitamin D level in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and to compare same with non‐cancer controls to determine any association. Materials and methods Patients wi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Clinical and experimental dental research Vol. 6; no. 4; pp. 428 - 432
Main Authors: Udeabor, Samuel E., Albejadi, Abdullah M., Al‐Shehri, Waleed A. K., Onwuka, Chidozie I., Al‐Fathani, Saeed Y., Al Nazeh, Abdullah A., Aldhahri, Saleh F., Alshahrani, Faleh A.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01-08-2020
John Wiley and Sons Inc
Wiley
Subjects:
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Objectives Serum level of vitamin D has been used as a predictor for cancer development. We intend to measure the baseline vitamin D level in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and to compare same with non‐cancer controls to determine any association. Materials and methods Patients with OSCC presenting to our clinics were included in this study. Their baseline serum vitamin D levels were measured prior to cancer treatment after obtaining their consents. These patients were then matched with at least 2 cancer‐free subjects to serve as controls and whose serum vitamin D levels were also measured. The serum vitamin D levels obtained for the two groups were then categorized into normal (>35 ng/ml), mild deficiency (25–35 ng/ml), moderate deficiency (12.5–25 ng/ml), and severe deficiency (<12.5 ng/ml). The data were analyzed statistically and the two groups compared. Results A total of 51 patients with OSCC (Male 22 [43%] and female 29 [57%]) and 113 cancer‐free controls (Male 36 [31.86%] and female 77 [68.14%]) were included in the study. The commonest site for OSCC was the tongue, accounting for 45% of the cancer cases. Mean age for cancer patients was 59.33 years ±12.54 and 49.24 years ±15.79 for the control. Among the OSCC patients, 74.51% had moderate to severe vitamin D deficiencies, whereas only 20.35% had a moderate deficiency in the control group with no severe deficiency. Conclusion Logistic regression analysis shows a positive association between vitamin D deficiency and OSCC risk especially in levels below 25 ng/ml. This further corroborates the assertion that vitamin D deficiency may be a useful indicator of OSCC. It may, therefore, be necessary to routinely prescribe vitamin D supplements to subjects with moderate to severe deficiencies in order to decrease the chances of OSCC development.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:2057-4347
2057-4347
DOI:10.1002/cre2.294