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Jeremy D. Meier, MD; Danny J. Enepekides, MD; Brian Poirier, MD; Christopher A. Bradley, PhD; Joanna S. Albala, PhD; D. Gregory Farwell, MD

Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2007;133(11):1149-1152.

Objective  To investigate whether systemic therapy with 1-alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D₃ (vitamin D₃ [hereinafter, VD₃]) prevents tumor formation in a hamster buccal pouch model of carcinogenesis.

Design  Randomized trial in which a known carcinogen, 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA), was applied to the buccal pouch of 40 hamsters. Animals were randomized to receive systemic VD₃ or no treatment and killed at 2, 6, and 14 weeks after the initiation of DMBA exposure.

Setting  Academic medical center.

Subjects  Forty male golden Syrian hamsters, aged 5 to 6 weeks, were used.

Interventions  A dose of 0.25 µg/kg of VD₃ via intraperitoneal injection was given to 20 animals 3 times per week. Of the remaining 20 control animals, 5 received placebo vehicle injection, and 15 received no further treatment.

Main Outcome Measures  Timing, size, and number of tumors that developed in the 2 groups.

Results  Only 1 hamster treated with VD₃ developed a confirmed neoplasm compared with 7 of the control animals (P < .01). The mean ± SD total diameter of gross lesions per animal in the VD₃-treated group was 1.2 ± 1.9 mm compared with 6.8 ± 6.6 mm in the control group (P = .03). The time to onset of lesion formation was significantly delayed in those animals treated with VD₃, with a mean ± SD time to development of 13.4 ± 0.9 weeks, while the control animals developed lesions at 11.2 ± 1.7 weeks (P = .02).

Conclusions  Systemic VD₃ therapy delays carcinogenesis in the hamster buccal pouch model. Further investigation into the mechanisms through which VD₃ inhibits carcinogenesis may lead to development of effective chemopreventive agents to combat head and neck cancer.

Author Affiliations: Departments of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (Drs Meier, Enepekides, Bradley, Albala, and Farwell), and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (Dr Poirier), School of Medicine, University of California Davis, Sacramento.