title: Vitamin D and cancer: an update of in vitro and in vivo data.
abstract: 1alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25(OH)2D3, Calcitriol) is a pleiotropic hormone with anti-proliferative, pro-apoptotic and pro-differentiation effects on numerous cell types, which suggest anti-cancer activity in addition to its classical regulatory action on calcium and phosphate metabolism. 1,25(OH)2D3 exerts its actions mainly via its high affinity receptor VDR through a complex network of genomic (transcriptional and post-transcriptional) and also non-genomic mechanisms, which are partially coincident in the different cells and tissues studied. Epidemiological and experimental in vitro and in vivo data support a cancer preventive role of 1,25(OH)2D3. The anti-cancer activity of 1,25(OH)2D3 and multiple analogs with reduced calcemic properties, which are thus less toxic, is under investigation in a long list of cultured cell types and in several in vivo models of wild-type and genetically-modified animals. Some vitamin D compounds have reached clinical trials, but results are still scarce.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones Biomedicas, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Paloma
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ordonez-Moran
authors.forename: Maria Jesus
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Larriba
authors.forename: Natalia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pendas-Franco
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Aguilera
authors.forename: Jose Manuel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Gonzalez-Sancho
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Munoz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D014807:Vitamin D / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D023041:Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; C118756:dihydroxy-vitamin D3; D014807:Vitamin D