Lung cancer survival linked to vitamin B6 metabolism

The outcome of lung cancer therapy with cisplatin can be predicted by the presence of an enzyme that is involved in vitamin B6 metabolism. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), which is the most common type of lung cancer, is known to be insensitive to conventional chemotherapy drugs, but a team of 69 scientists might have found a way to improve the rate of success.

Writing in Cell Reports, where the full article can be accessed online, they describe how they altered gene expression in the cells of patients with NSCLC and identified 85 proteins that either enhanced or inhibited the potency of the anticancer drug cisplatin against the cancer cells. One of these is pyridoxal kinase, an enzyme which converts vitamin B6 precursors into their bioactive derivative pyridoxal-5-phosphate.

On further investigation using various cancer cell lines and mouse models of lung cancer, the presence of the vitamin B6 precursor pyridoxine improves the death rate of cancer cells treated with cisplatin. In addition, the levels of pyridoxine kinase are directly related to the survival rates of humans with NSCLC, presenting a novel way to predict the likely outcome of treatment.