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Pre-diagnostic vitamin D concentrations and cancer risks in older individuals: an analysis of cohorts participating in the CHANCES consortium

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Abstract

The associations of circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations with total and site-specific cancer incidence have been examined in several epidemiological studies with overall inconclusive findings. Very little is known about the association of vitamin D with cancer incidence in older populations. We assessed the association of pre-diagnostic serum 25(OH)D levels with incidence of all cancers combined and incidence of lung, colorectal, breast, prostate and lymphoid malignancies among older adults. Pre-diagnostic 25(OH)D concentrations and cancer incidence were available in total for 15,486 older adults (mean age 63, range 50–84 years) participating in two cohort studies: ESTHER (Germany) and TROMSØ (Norway); and a subset of previously published nested-case control data from a another cohort study: EPIC-Elderly (Greece, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain and Sweden) from the CHANCES consortium on health and aging. Cox proportional hazards or logistic regression were used to derive multivariable adjusted hazard and odds ratios, respectively, and their 95 % confidence intervals across 25(OH)D categories. Meta-analyses with random effects models were used to pool study-specific risk estimates. Overall, lower 25(OH)D concentrations were not significantly associated with increased incidence of most of the cancers assessed. However, there was some evidence of increased breast cancer and decreased lymphoma risk with higher 25(OH)D concentrations. Our meta-analyses with individual participant data from three large European population-based cohort studies provide at best limited support for the hypothesis that vitamin D may have a major role in cancer development and prevention among European older adults.

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Acknowledgments

This analysis was part of the CHANCES project funded in the FP7 (www.chancesfp7.eu) framework program of DG-RESEARCH in the European Commission (Grant No. 242244). The CHANCES project is coordinated by the Hellenic Health Foundation, Greece. The ESTHER study was funded by the Baden-Württemberg state Ministry of Science, Research and Arts (Stuttgart, Germany), the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Berlin, Germany) and the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (Berlin, Germany). Measurements of 25(OH)D in men were conducted in the context of the German Cancer Aid project number 108250 and 108426. The TROMSØ Study was funded by the Norwegian Research Council and performed by the University of Tromsø in cooperation with the National Health Screening Service. In EPIC-Elderly, 25(OH)D measurements in colorectal cancer cases and controls were funded by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF, London, UK; Grant Number 2005/12). The EPIC-Elderly study was funded by the “Europe Against Cancer” programme of the European Commission. Additionally, each center received local financial support (http://epic.iarc.fr/funding.php). All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Im Neuenheimer Feld 581, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany

    José Manuel Ordóñez-Mena, Ben Schöttker, Laura Perna & Hermann Brenner

  2. Network of Aging Research, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany

    José Manuel Ordóñez-Mena

  3. Rollins School of Public Health, Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Veronika Fedirko

  4. International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France

    Mazda Jenab

  5. Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Anja Olsen & Jytte Halkjær

  6. Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Ellen Kampman & Lisette de Groot

  7. Center for Health Protection, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands

    Eugene Jansen

  8. Department of Chronic Diseases, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands

    H. Bas Bueno-de-Mesquita

  9. Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Medical Centre, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    H. Bas Bueno-de-Mesquita

  10. Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, The School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK

    H. Bas Bueno-de-Mesquita

  11. Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    H. Bas Bueno-de-Mesquita

  12. Division of Epidemiology, Public Health and Primary Care, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Petra H. Peeters

  13. Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Petra H. Peeters

  14. Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

    Galatios Siganos & Tom Wilsgaard

  15. Saarland Cancer Registry, Saarland, Germany

    Bernd Holleczek

  16. Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Neurosciences, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Ulrika Pettersson-Kymmer

  17. Hellenic Health Foundation, Athens, Greece

    Philippos Orfanos, Antonia Trichopoulou & Paolo Boffetta

  18. Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, University of Athens, Medical School, Athens, Greece

    Philippos Orfanos & Antonia Trichopoulou

  19. The Tisch Cancer Institute and Institute for Translational Epidemiology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    Paolo Boffetta

  20. The German Cancer Consortium, Heidelberg, Germany

    Hermann Brenner

Authors
  1. José Manuel Ordóñez-Mena
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  2. Ben Schöttker
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  3. Veronika Fedirko
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  9. Eugene Jansen
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  14. Laura Perna
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  20. Hermann Brenner
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Correspondence to Hermann Brenner.

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Ordóñez-Mena, J.M., Schöttker, B., Fedirko, V. et al. Pre-diagnostic vitamin D concentrations and cancer risks in older individuals: an analysis of cohorts participating in the CHANCES consortium. Eur J Epidemiol 31, 311–323 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-015-0040-7

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