Vitamin D status in patients with stage IV colorectal cancer: findings from Intergroup trial N9741.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 515 patients taking part.

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, both men and women.

The researchers prospectively measured plasma 25(OH)D levels in 515 patients with stage IV colorectal cancer participating in a randomized trial of chemotherapy.

The researchers examined the association between baseline 25(OH)D level and selected patient characteristics.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized study.

The patients were allocated by chance, so the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Vitamin D deficiency was defined as 25(OH)D lower than 20 ng/mL, insufficiency as 20 to 29 ng/mL, and sufficiency as ≥ 30 ng/mL.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Adenocarcinoma, Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols, Biomarkers, Canada, Colorectal Neoplasms, Disease Progression and Logistic Models.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 515 patients.

With several hundred people or more, it is a fairly large study for this kind of research.

Its findings take up roughly 4 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2011 (Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.