A new study, published in the scientific journal Cancers, has found that patients with low vitamin D who received vitamin D had a reduced need for opioid painkillers in palliative cancer treatment, according to Science Daily.
The study, conducted by the researchers at Karolinska Institutet, also found that the patients had lower levels of fatigue after receiving vitamin D supplementation.
Vitamin D deficiency is quite common in patients with cancer. And previous studies have found that low vitamin D levels may be associated with intense pain, vulnerability to infection, fatigue, depression, and poor quality of life.
One small study suggested that vitamin D supplements could reduce the use of opioids and antibiotics, and improve the quality of life in patients with cancer.
The current study looked at 244 cancer patients with palliative cancer from 2017 to 2020. All of the participants had a vitamin D deficiency at the start of the study. During the study period, half of them received vitamin D supplementation for 12 weeks, while the others were given a placebo.
Study author Dr. Linda Björkhem-Bergman said, “The results showed that vitamin D treatment was well tolerated and that the vitamin D-treated patients had a significantly slower increase in opioid doses than the placebo group during the study period. In addition, they experienced less cancer-related fatigue compared to the placebo group.”
However, the researchers noted that there was no difference between the groups in terms of self-rated quality of life and antibiotic use.
The study’s first author Dr. Maria Helde Frankling said, “The effects were quite small, but statistically significant and may have clinical significance for patients with vitamin D deficiency who have cancer in the palliative phase. This is the first time it has been shown that vitamin D treatment for palliative cancer patients can have an effect on both opioid-sensitive pain and fatigue.”
One of the limitations of the study includes a large drop-out rate, as only 150 patients completed the 12-week study. Most patients died of cancer during the study period. The article was published in Science Daily.
