Vitamin D may have activity against myeloma and lymphoma

What is it about?

B cells are white blood cells that normally help fight infection by maturing into antibody secreting plasma cells. Certain blood cancers share features of cells turning into plasma cells, including plasmablastic lymphoma, and some multiple myelomas and diffuse large B-cell lymphomas. Cell lines from such plasmablastic cell lines express the receptor for vitamin D (VDR) and the enzyme that activates vitamin D3 production. Active vitamin D3 can inhibit their growth.

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Why is it important?

Plasmablastic B-cell tumours are difficult to diagnose and may not respond well to standard treatments. There are many conflicting studies implicating vitamin D3 deficiency as a risk factor for developing lymphoma or predicting response to treatment. Here we identify HLY-1 as a cell line model in which to test new treatments for plasmablastic lymphoma and we show that interfering with the vitamin D receptor pathway could have potential as a new therapy.