Does Vitamin K Help or Hurt Pancreatic Cancer Patients?

Pancreatic cancer is difficult to treat. Preliminary studies suggest vitamin K, vitamin K2, and vitamin K3 may also kill pancreatic cancer cells. Vitamin K is also used to prevent excess bleeding during surgery for pancreatic cancer.^{(43, 73, 80)}

If Vitamin K Blockers Increase Survival Times, Does Vitamin K Promote Cancer?

Warfarin is an anticoagulant drug used to prevent dangerous blood clots. It works by reducing levels of vitamin K, which is needed for clotting.^(4, 6)

Some research has linked the use of warfarin to increased survival in pancreatic cancer patients. In 2 studies, patients with pancreatic cancer who used low-dose warfarin had small but significant increases in survival times (2-5 months).⁽⁸¹⁾

However, warfarin's positive impact is most likely linked to reducing the risk of abnormal clots in veins and not on blocking vitamin K. Preliminary research actually indicates that vitamin K may offer therapeutic benefit for pancreatic cancer.^(73, 81)

Evidence of Benefit

Vitamins K1 and K2 both inhibited cancer cell survival in lab studies on 4 human pancreatic cancer cell lines. When combined with chemotherapy, vitamin K improved the drug's ability to kill cancer cells. This suggests that less chemotherapy could be used with the same anticancer effect.^(73, 82)

In animal experiments using transplanted pancreatic cancer cells, vitamin K3 killed and inhibited the growth and spread of pancreatic cancer cells.⁽⁴³⁾