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Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations and lung cancer risk in never-smoking postmenopausal women

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Abstract

Purpose

Vitamin D has been implicated in lowering lung cancer risk, but serological data on the association among never-smoking women are limited. We report results examining the association of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations with lung cancer risk among female never smokers. We also examined whether the association was modified by vitamin D supplementation and serum vitamin A concentrations.

Methods

In the Women’s Health Initiative, including the calcium/vitamin D (CaD) Trial, we selected 298 incident cases [191 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) including 170 adenocarcinoma] and 298 matched controls of never smokers. Baseline serum 25(OH)D was assayed by a chemiluminescent method. Logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) for quartiles and predefined clinical cutoffs of serum 25(OH)D concentrations.

Results

Comparing quartiles 4 versus 1 of serum 25(OH)D concentrations, ORs were 1.06 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.61–1.84] for all lung cancer, 0.94 (95% CI 0.52–1.69) for NSCLC, and 0.91 (95% CI 0.49–1.68) for adenocarcinoma. Comparing serum 25(OH)D ≥ 75 (high) versus <30 nmol/L (deficient), ORs were 0.76 (95% CI 0.31–1.84) for all lung cancer, 0.71 (95% CI 0.27–1.86) for NSCLC, and 0.81 (95% CI 0.31–2.14) for adenocarcinoma. There is suggestive evidence that CaD supplementation (1 g calcium + 400 IU D3/day) and a high level of circulating vitamin A may modify the associations of 25(OH)D with lung cancer overall and subtypes (p interaction <0.10).

Conclusions

In this group of never-smoking postmenopausal women, the results did not support the hypothesis of an association between serum 25(OH)D and lung cancer risk.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Xiaojun Hu and Pamela Y. Yang for their technical assistance with the lab assays and Hui-Chun Tammy Hsu for her statistical assistance. We also thank WHI participants and the Program Office; Jacques Rossouw, Shari Ludlam, Joan McGowan, Leslie Ford, and Nancy Geller (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD); Garnet Anderson, Ross Prentice, Andrea LaCroix, and Charles Kooperberg (the Clinical Coordinating Center at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA); the Investigators and Academic Centers; JoAnn E Manson (Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA); Barbara V Howard (MedStar Health Research Institute/Howard University, Washington, DC); Marcia L Stefanick (Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford, CA); Rebecca Jackson (The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH); Cynthia A Thomson (University of Arizona, Tucson/Phoenix, AZ); Marian Limacher (University of Florida, Gainesville/Jacksonville, FL); Robert Wallace (University of Iowa, Iowa City/Davenport, IA); Lewis Kuller (University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA); Sally Shumaker (Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC).

Funding

This work was supported by NIH/NCI grants R03CA167696 and K07CA201334. The WHI program is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NIH, US Department of Health and Human Services through contracts HHSN268201100046C, HHSN268201100001C, HHSN268201100002C, HSN268201100003C, HHSN268201100004C, and HHSN271201100004C.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, University of Florida, 2004 Mowry Road, 4th Floor, RM4213, P. O. Box 100231, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA

    Ting-Yuan David Cheng

  2. Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA

    Xiaoling Song, Shirley A. A. Beresford & Marian L. Neuhouser

  3. Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, NY, USA

    Gloria Y. F. Ho

  4. Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, Hempstead, NY, USA

    Gloria Y. F. Ho

  5. Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, USA

    Karen C. Johnson

  6. Department of Nutrition Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    Mridul Datta

  7. City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA, USA

    Rowan T. Chlebowski

  8. Department of Epidemiology and Environment Health, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Jean Wactawski-Wende

  9. Division of Biostatistics, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    Lihong Qi

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  1. Ting-Yuan David Cheng
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Correspondence to Ting-Yuan David Cheng.

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Cheng, TY.D., Song, X., Beresford, S.A.A. et al. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations and lung cancer risk in never-smoking postmenopausal women. Cancer Causes Control 28, 1053–1063 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-017-0956-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-017-0956-1

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