Vitamin D3 (Calcitriol) Monotherapy Decreases Tumor Growth, Increases Survival, and Correlates with Low Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio in a Murine HPV-16-Related Cancer Model.

Vitamin D3 or calcitriol (VitD3) has been shown to have anticancer and anti-inflammatory activity in in vitro models and clinical studies. However, its effect on HPV-16-related cancer has been sparsely explored. In this study, we aimed to determine whether monotherapy or combination therapy with cisplatin (CP) reduces tumor growth and affects survival and systemic inflammation. Treatments were administered to C57BL/6 mice with HPV-16-related tumors (TC-1 cells) as follows: (1) placebo (100 µL vehicle, olive oil, orally administered daily); (2) VitD3 (3.75 µg/kg calcitriol orally administered daily); (3) CP (5 mg/kg intraperitoneally, every 7 days); and (4) VitD3+CP. Tumor growth was monitored for 25 days, survival for 60 days, and the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) was evaluated on days 1 (baseline), 7, and 14. VitD3+CP showed greater success in reducing tumor volume compared to CP monotherapy (p = 0.041), while no differences were observed between CP and VitD3 monotherapy (p = 0.671). Furthermore, VitD3+CP prolonged survival compared to CP (p = 0.036) and VitD3 (p = 0.007). Additionally, at day 14 the VitD3 and VitD3+CP groups showed significantly lower NLR values than the CP group (p < 0.05, for both comparisons). Vitamin D3 could be a promising adjuvant in the treatment of cervical cancer or solid tumors and deserves further investigation.

Regional and national burden of prostate cancer: incidence, mortality, years of life lost, and disability-adjusted life years, in Mexico and Latin America from 1990 to 2019.

PURPOSE: Prostate cancer (PC) is the second leading cause of cancer and the fifth cause of cancer-related death. This manuscript aims to determine the incidence, mortality, and Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) trends of PC in the last 30 years in Latin America and Mexico. METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of a publicly available data set. Data regarding the burden of prostate cancer in 20 Latin-American countries, and the 32 states of Mexico, were retrieved from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Collected information included incidence and mortality rates (per 100,000), as well as the DALYs as absolute numbers and rates (per 100,000) and the annual rates of change in rates from 1990 to 2019. RESULTS: In Latin America in males aged 55 years or older, the mean incidence rate was 344 cases per 100,000. The number of deaths attributable to prostate cancer observed was 67,110 and the mean mortality rate was 210 per 100,000. The overall burden of disease was 1,120,709 DALYs and the contribution of years of life lost (YLL) was 91.7% ([Formula: see text] = 1,027,946). Mexico presented an incidence rate (279.6) and mortality (99.1) rate (per /100 thousand). In Mexico, 13 states had a DALYs' rate above the national mean (883 per 100,000) and the highest burden (1360 DALYs/100,000) were documented in the state of Guerrero (Southwestern Mexico). CONCLUSION: Only two Latin-American countries (Brazil and Colombia) and eight states of Mexico showed a decreased trend about the rate of change of DALYs in the last 30 years.

Decreased biochemical progression in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer using a novel mefenamic acid anti-inflammatory therapy: A randomized controlled trial.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most common non-dermatological cancer in men and is a growing public health problem. Castration-resistant disease (CRD) is the most advanced stage of the disease and is difficult to control. Patients with CRD may no longer accept conventional therapies as they are not in appropriate clinical conditions or they refuse to receive it. Given that inflammation is an essential component of CRD origin and progression, anti-inflammatory agents could be a therapeutic option with fenamates as one of the proposed choices. A prospective, randomized, double-blinded, 2-arm, parallel group, phase II-III clinical trial was performed involving 20 patients with CRD-PCa (with a prostate specific antigen level <100 ng/ml) that were undergoing androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and did not accept any established treatment for that disease stage. In addition to ADT, 10 patients received placebo and 10 received mefenamic acid (500 mg orally every 12 h) for 6 months. The primary endpoint was the change in serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) at 6 months. The PSA levels decreased significantly with mefenamic acid (an average 42% decrease), whereas there was an average 55% increase in the placebo group (P=0.024). In the patients treated with the placebo, 70% had biochemical disease progression (an increase of ≥25% in PSA levels), which did not occur in any of the patients treated with mefenamic acid (relative risk=0.12; 95% confidence interval, 0.01-0.85; P=0.033). There was a significant increase in quality of life (EQ-5D-5L score) and body mass index (BMI) with the experimental treatment. In conclusion, mefenamic acid administration decreased biochemical progression in patients with castration resistant PCa, improved their quality of life and increased their BMI. Future studies are required in order to strengthen the findings of the present clinical trial. Trial registration, Cuban Public Registry of Clinical Trials Database RPCEC00000248, August 2017.