High-dose vitamin D helps with severe cutaneous toxic effects of chemo, radiation

High-dose vitamin D shows promise in the treatment of toxic erythema of chemotherapy (TEC) and acute radiation dermatitis (ARD), according to a retrospective study.

The study included 33 patients (mean age 60.9 years, 58 percent female), among whom 85 percent had TEC and 15 percent had ARD. These patients had received one or two oral doses of 100,000 international units of cholecalciferol or ergocalciferol, with at least 10 days of follow-up.

The primary outcomes were time to patient-reported symptomatic relief and clinician-assessed objective improvement in erythema on a 5-point Likert scale. Secondary outcomes included changes in serum calcium and the ability to continue anticancer therapy.

Subjective symptom relief within 10 days of treatment occurred in 87 percent of patients, with a median time to improvement of 5 days overall and 3 days for the inpatient subgroup. The mean Likert erythema score dropped from 4.36 points at baseline to 2.21 points at day 10. Rapid responses were observed in patients with neutrophilic eccrine hidradenitis and Stevens-Johnson syndrome/toxic epidermal necrolysis–like subtypes.

Serum calcium levels did not change significantly, and 73 percent of patients were able to continue their anticancer therapy without interruption.

There were no treatment-related adverse events documented during the study.

The findings support further study of high-dose vitamin D as a supportive care approach in oncodermatology.