Big effect
Vitamin K as an add-on therapy slashed liver cancer recurrence risk by 74% in a meta-analysis — but only in patients with advanced tumors who couldn't have surgery.
This is an unusually large effect from a systematic review of 688 patients, but it's among the first indexed studies on vitamin K for this specific use, so the finding needs replication before you'd act on it.
In patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (the most common type of liver cancer), adding vitamin K to standard treatment reduced the chance of the cancer coming back by about three-quarters. However, the benefit was clearest in people with inoperable tumors receiving a specific procedure called transarterial chemoembolization, and vitamin K did not improve overall survival — meaning it didn't help people live longer, just delayed the cancer's return.
Where this fits in the evidence
This is among the first studies we've indexed on Vitamin K for Reduced Recurrence Risk — treat it as an early signal until more research accumulates.
The study
- Systematic Review
- n = 688
- 2026-03-18
- Frontiers in oncology
This is a plain-language summary of a research finding, not medical advice. Pillser surfaces research signals to help you decide what's worth investigating — always consult a qualified professional before changing what you take.