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Nov. 18 (UPI) -- Taking a vitamin D3 supplement reduces a person's risk for metastatic cancer and death by 17%, according to a study published Wednesday by JAMA Network Open. However, the vitamin supplement does not help lower the risk for developing the disease, the researchers said.
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The benefits of vitamin D3 in limiting metastases -- or disease spread to other organs -- and severity was seen across all cancers, and was particularly prominent among study participants who maintained a healthy weight, researchers said.
"The primary message [of our study] is that vitamin D may reduce the chance of developing metastatic or fatal cancer among adults without a diagnosis of cancer," study co-author Dr. Paulette Chandler told UPI.
"Our study [also] highlights that obesity may confer resistance to vitamin D effects," said Chandler, an assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
The research conducted by Chandler and her colleagues is a follow-up to the ongoing Vital Study.
The study is assessing whether taking daily dietary supplements of vitamin D3 -- at a dose of 2,000 International Units -- reduces the risk for developing cancer, heart disease and stroke in people who do not have a prior history of these illnesses.
The study population includes nearly 26,000 people, roughly half of whom are taking vitamin D3 supplements daily, while the other half were given a placebo, the researchers said.
Over an average of approximately five years, about 6% of participants in both the vitamin D and placebo groups developed cancer, with cancers of the prostate, breast and lung being the most common, the data showed.
However, 1.7% of the participants in the vitamin D group developed metastatic disease or died, compared to 2.1% in the placebo group, the researchers said.
In addition, taking vitamin D3 combined with maintaining a healthy weight reduced the risk for metastatic cancer and death by about 40%, according to the researchers.
"Our study evaluated the effect of vitamin D supplementation in individuals that were free of cancer," Chandler said.
"Additional vitamin D supplementation studies focusing on cancer patients and investigating the role of [body weight] are warranted," she said.
Recent research on vitamin D suggests that being deficient in the nutrient -- which up to 60% of adults are -- increases a person's risk for severe illness from COVID-19.
None of the participants who took the supplement in the VITAL study were, according to the researchers.
Although vitamin D is believed to boost immune system health, a recent study found that taking a supplement did not reduce the risk for infection in older adults.
