Vitamin A: Friend or Foe in Cancer Fight? New Research Reveals Surprising Role

• New research from Princeton's Ludwig Institute suggests a vitamin A-derived molecule, all-trans retinoic acid, can disarm the immune system, allowing cancer to grow.
• This finding resolves a long-standing contradiction: vitamin A derivatives kill cancer cells in labs, but high intake increases cancer risk in clinical trials.
• The key lies in how retinoic acid reprograms dendritic cells, preventing them from fully maturing and activating anti-cancer T cells.
• An experimental drug, KyA33, blocks retinoic acid production, boosting immune responses and improving cancer vaccine performance in preclinical studies.
• The study offers new insights into tumor immune evasion and opens avenues for novel immune-boosting cancer therapies.

Why It Matters: Vitamin A's role in cancer is complex; a derivative can suppress immunity, but blocking it shows therapeutic promise.