Vitamin D analogs in cancer prevention and therapy

The Second International Symposium on "Vitamin D Analogs in Cancer Prevention and Therapy", was held in Lübeck, Germany, May 7-8, 2005. This meeting was specifically designed to summarize the latest developments in the epidemiology, molecular biology, metabolism, biological effects and clinical use of vitamin D analogs, leading to new concepts for their application in cancer prevention and therapy. Forty keynote lectures were presented at the Symposium and the following conclusions were summarized at a round-table discussion. Cancer Prevention: Evidence from epidemiological and laboratory investigations now convincingly demonstrate that vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency are underrecognized worldwide problems that are associated with several health problems, including the higher prevalence and unfavorable course of cancer. There is an urgent need for additional well-designed studies to define the optimal vitamin D status (25-hydroxyvitamin D serum level) and for campaigns to better inform the public and medical profession alike about the health risks related to vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency. Cancer Therapy: Knowledge of the underlying molecular mechanisms that mediate the antitumor effects of vitamin D analogs has expanded greatly during recent years and results from the first clinical trials indicate that such analogs hold promise for cancer therapy, most probably in combination with other agents. However, the era of vitamin D analogs in cancer therapy has just begun and efforts to perform well-designed clinical studies and to develop new analogs with fewer systemic side-effects have to continue.