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World J Clin Oncol. Oct 24, 2026; 17(10): 125846
Published online Oct 24, 2026. doi: 10.5306/wjco.125846
Published online Oct 24, 2026. doi: 10.5306/wjco.125846
Vitamin-mediated cancer immune reprogramming: Context-dependent mechanisms and translational perspectives
Qian Zhang, Rong-Hao Yang, Xiao-Rui An, Hao-Cai Chang, MOE Key Laboratory of Laser Life Science & Institute of Laser Life Science, College of Biophotonics, School of Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, Guangdong Province, China
Qian Zhang, Rong-Hao Yang, Xiao-Rui An, Hao-Cai Chang, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Laser Life Science, College of Biophotonics, School of Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Zhang Q and Chang HC contributed to writing - review & editing; Zhang Q contributed to the methodology and validation; Yang RH contributed to data curation and investigation; An XR contributed to the resources, formal analysis, writing - original draft; Chang HC contributed to the conceptualization, formal analysis, funding acquisition, visualization, and supervision.
AI contribution statement: During the preparation of this manuscript, ChatGPT-4o (OpenAI) was used solely for language polishing, sentence rephrasing and readability improvement. No generative-AI tool was used for literature retrieval, reference screening, citation matching, drawing mechanistic conclusions, or generating clinical claims. All text, mechanistic interpretations, clinical assertions, table content, figure content, citations and reference metadata have been fully manually audited, revised and verified by all authors. The authors take full and ultimate responsibility for all content within this manuscript.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 62475076; Guangdong Provincial Department of Education Key Areas Special Project for Regular Higher Education Institutions, No. 2023ZDZX2022; and Youth S&T Talent Support Programme of Guangdong Provincial Association for Science and Technology, No. SKXRC2025014.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Corresponding author: Hao-Cai Chang, PhD, Assistant Professor, MOE Key Laboratory of Laser Life Science & Institute of Laser Life Science, College of Biophotonics, School of Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, South China Normal University, No. 55 West Zhongshan Avenue, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 510631, Guangdong Province, China.
Received: July 20, 2026
Revised: August 22, 2026
Accepted: October 8, 2026
Published online: October 24, 2026
Processing time: 96 Days and 14.5 Hours
Revised: August 22, 2026
Accepted: October 8, 2026
Published online: October 24, 2026
Processing time: 96 Days and 14.5 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Vitamins are context-dependent immunometabolic regulators reshaping anti-tumor immunity and immune checkpoint inhibitor response beyond simple antioxidant function. This review summarizes mechanistic and translational evidence of vitamins A/B/C/D/E/K in tumor immunity, putting forward three core principles covering dose-dependent immune effects, epigenetic regulatory mechanisms, and biomarker-guided adjuvant application. We propose a precision vitamin-targeted immunotherapy framework combining deficiency correction, standardized supplementation and matched immune background to optimize tumor immunotherapy efficacy.