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Vitamin D metabolism in cancer: potential feasibility of vitamin D metabolism blocking therapy

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Abstract

In this review, we discuss the possibility of the vitamin D metabolizing enzyme CYP24A1 being a therapeutic target for various tumors including breast, colorectal and prostate tumors. Given the pleiotropic cellular activity of vitamin D, its deficiency impairs its physiological function in target cells and results in various pathologies including cancer. In addition, accumulated data have shown that elevated expression of CYP24A1 promotes carcinogenesis in various cancer subtypes by decreasing the bioavailability of vitamin D metabolites. Thus, we propose the potential feasibility of vitamin D metabolism-blocking therapy in various types of human malignancies that express constitutive CYP24A1.

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Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the present study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. In addition, the data generated in the present study are included in the figures and/or tables of this article.

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Acknowledgements

Certain parts of this study are included in the Japanese-language PhD thesis of the author SK at Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, South-1, West-17, Chuo-Ku, Sapporo, 060-0061, Japan

    Sakura Kamiya, Yuna Nakamori, Akira Takasawa, Kumi Takasawa, Daisuke Kyuno, Yusuke Ono, Kazufumi Magara & Makoto Osanai

  2. Department of Oral Surgery, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan

    Yuna Nakamori

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  1. Sakura Kamiya
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  2. Yuna Nakamori
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  3. Akira Takasawa
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  6. Yusuke Ono
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Contributions

SK and YN carried out the cell culture experiments and immunohistochemistry. AT, KT, DK, YO and KM performed the histological examination of breast cancer. SK and MO were major contributors to the writing of the manuscript and confirmed the authenticity of all of the raw data. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Makoto Osanai.

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Ethics approval/consent to participate and publication

This study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee (Approval Number: 4-1-44) and Institutional Review Board (IRB study number: 312‐230) of Sapporo Medical University. Specimens of 136 cases of breast cancer collected by surgical resection during the period from 2011 to 2014 were used in this study. The Ethics Committee waived the need to obtain written informed consent from the patients for the use of human tissues owing to the retrospective nature of the study. The research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration. The researchers involved in this study had no access to information that could identify individual participants during or after data collection.

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Kamiya, S., Nakamori, Y., Takasawa, A. et al. Vitamin D metabolism in cancer: potential feasibility of vitamin D metabolism blocking therapy. Med Mol Morphol 56, 85–93 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00795-023-00348-x

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