Multivitamin Use After CRC Diagnosis May Lower Risk of Death

Patients who reported moderate use of multivitamins after a colorectal cancer (CRC) diagnosis had a lower risk of cancer-specific death and death from any cause than patients who did not take multivitamins, researchers found.

However, patients who took high doses of multivitamins had a higher risk of cancer-specific death. The researchers reported these findings in Cancer.

The study included data from 2424 patients with stage I-III CRC who were enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.

Over a median follow-up of 11 years, there were 1512 deaths, and 343 of those deaths were considered related to CRC. Other causes of death included cardiovascular diseases (n=330), cancers other than CRC (n=209), dementia (n=116), and respiratory disease (n=104).

In a multivariable analysis, CRC patients who reported taking 3 to 5 multivitamin tablets per week after their diagnosis had a significantly lower risk of CRC-specific death than patients who did not take multivitamins (hazard ratio [HR], 0.55; 95% CI, 0.36-0.83; P =.005).

Patients who took 3 to 5 tablets also had a lower risk of all-cause death (HR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.67-0.99; P =.04), as did patients who took 6 to 9 tablets per week (HR, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.70-0.88; P <.001).

However, patients who took 10 or more multivitamin tablets per week had a higher risk of CRC‐specific death than patients who did not take multivitamins (HR, 1.60; 95% CI, 1.07-2.40, P =.02).

There were no other significant associations for patients in the aforementioned dose groups or for patients who took 1 to 2 multivitamin tablets per week. The researchers noted that patients who took 3 to 5 tablets per week had the maximum reduction in mortality risk.

“Users taking more than 8 tablets/week tended to have a higher risk of CRC‐specific mortality, and users with more than 10 tablets/week had a significantly higher risk of CRC‐specific mortality than non‐[users],” the researchers wrote. “These findings suggest that a dose at 3–5 tablets/week may be considered in future clinical trials to further confirm our results.”

The researchers noted that this study has limitations, including recall bias, residual confounding, and a lack of detailed information about treatments.

Disclosures: Some study authors declared affiliations with biotech, pharmaceutical, and/or device companies. Please see the original reference for a full list of disclosures.

This article originally appeared on Cancer Therapy Advisor