Frequency of Combined Deficiencies of Vitamin D and Holotranscobalamin in Cancer Patients

Abstract: Vitamin D and holotranscobalamin (HTCII) deficiencies have been seen to demonstrate an association with various types of cancers. The objective of this study is to determine the frequency of vitamin D and HTCII deficiency in cancer patients. Our study investigated vitamin D, total B12, and HTCII levels in 70 cancer patients. Vitamin D status was measured as serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D, Nichols Advantage assay], and serum B12 was measured as both total B12 and as the metabolically active HTCII (Immulite B12 assay followed by glass adsorption). Insufficiency of serum 25(OH)D levels for this study is defined based on differing literature standards of insufficiency and was selected to be either <50 or <75 nmol/l. When 25(OH)D insufficiency is defined as serum level of <75 nmol/l, 43 of 60 (72%) of cancer patients were found to be insufficient. At the lower definition of insufficiency, <50 nmol/l, 24 of 60 patients (40%) were insufficient. Of 52 patients, only 3 (6%) were found to have insuffi...