Sunlight, vitamin D, vitamin D receptor polymorphisms, and risk of multiple myeloma: A systematic review

This systematic review examines the relationship with multiple myeloma (MM) risk for sunlight and vitamin D related exposures, including vitamin D supplementation, circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration, personal ultraviolet B radiation exposure, ambient solar irradiance and vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene polymorphisms We conducted a search for terms related to multiple myeloma, vitamin D, vitamin D receptor, ultraviolet radiation, sunlight, and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) using Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid EMBASE, Web of Science and Cochrane CENTRAL. Studies were assessed for risk of bias and quality using the RoB 2.0, ROBINS-E or Q-Genie tools. We identified 13 eligible studies: one randomised controlled trial, two cohort studies, and ten case-control studies, including one nested case-control study and one meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies. We conducted a qualitative synthesis; quantitative synthesis was not appropriate due to study heterogeneity and the small number of studies identified. There was insufficient evidence to support an effect of any sunlight or vitamin D related exposure on MM risk. No polymorphisms in VDR were found to be strongly related to risk for people of European ancestry. Of the identified studies, many had high risk of bias or were of lower quality. Few studies have investigated the association between sunlight and vitamin D related exposures and multiple myeloma risk. The scarcity of high-quality studies makes it difficult to evaluate potential effects of these exposures on MM risk. Further research is necessary to investigate the influence of vitamin D related exposures on risk of multiple myeloma..