Vitamin Information Center

Vitamin C jabs are the new ray of hope for cancerdefine patients with poor chances and few treatment options as a new study found that injecting high dose of vitamin C instead of swallowed can destroy cancer.

The super high doses of vitamin C jabs halves the size of brain, ovarian and pancreatic tumours in mice, destroying cancerdefine cells while leaving healthy tissue unharmed. The researchers said that the vitamin may be reacting with the cancer cell chemicals to make acid.

The lead author of the study, Dr Qi Chen, from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland conducted the experiment on mice with aggressive forms of ovarian, brain and pancreatic cancer.

One group of mice was given high super doses of vitamin C jabs (up to 4grams per kilo of body weight) while another group wasn’t given any vitamin. The researchers found that the injections caused the growth and weight of tumours to drop by nearly 50 percent, while in untreated mice, the disease spread rapidly to other organs. There were no signs the cancer had spread in the treated mice.

The US team wrote in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “The daily treatment significantly decreased growth rates of ovarian, pancreatic and glioblastoma tumours established in mice”.

Adding further they said, “Similar pharmacologic concentrations were readily achieved in humans given ascorbate intravenously. This data suggests that ascorbate as a prodrug may have benefits in cancers with poor prognosisdefine and limited therapeutic options.”

The authors are suggesting that after these successful tests in mice now treatment should be considered for human use at similar levels.

While on the other hand, Cancer Research UK cautioned that other studies suggested high doses of vitamin C might interfere with existing therapies and make them less effective.

Dr Alison Ross, of Cancer Research UK, said: ‘This is encouraging work but it’s at a very early stage because it involves cells grown in the lab and mice. Much more research is needed before we’ll know whether vitamin C could be a viable cancer treatment.’

Vitamin C (chemical name ascorbate) has been part of complementary or alternative cancer treatment for more than 30 years.

It is generally used as hair bleach and now the study shows that it kills cancer cells without harming healthy tissue, which means that the cancer treatment should be free of nausea, pain and hair loss many times associated with cancer medications and would also have the added advantage of being cheap.

Previous studies show that higher intake of vitamin C reduce human risk for gastricdefine, esophageal, pancreatic and lung cancer. Patients with higher levels of ascorbate have been shown to have lower risk of both coronary heart disease, stroke and cataract development.

A new study by the National Cancer Institute has found that people with one or more chronic illness are the primary factor behind the use of dietary supplements. Cancer survivors also contribute to the use of supplements, although not specifically as cancer treatments.

Dr. Melissa Farmer Miller, the study’s lead author, told Reuters that its important for cancer patients to inform their physicians about any non-prescription medications or natural products they may be taking, as a lack of information exists on the risks and benefits of many supplements. In addition, there may be potential for drug interactions with medications, such as tamoxifen, that many cancer survivors may be taking.

“We really are just beginning to build an evidence base on the benefits of dietary supplements,” said Miller, of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.

“Even if there’s not a benefit, there is a potential for them to cause harm,” she said, noting that the use of supplements is growing among all Americans.

To determine whether cancer survivors are using supplements at greater rates than the general population, Miller and her team analyzed information from 1,844 cancer survivors and compared it with a random sampling of 7,343 people with no history of cancer.

The team found that vitamins were the only type of supplement use independently associated with having a cancer diagnosis. However, those participants with a  chronic illness were 82 percent more likely than those without a chronic disease to be using two or more supplements, regardless of whether or not they also had cancer.

Other factors associated with the use of dietary supplements were greater physical activity, consumption of fruits and vegetables, being female, being of older age and the use of other alternative and complementary medicines.

Miller said it was not possible at this time to conclude whether or not people living with cancer should either take supplements, or avoid them.

“The primary message should always be to promote a healthy diet,” she said.

She said that doctors and other cancer patient caregivers should be up to date on the literature about various supplements, and should be aware of any supplements their patients may be taking. Cancer patients should also be informed as much as possible about any supplement before they take it, Miller added, noting that it can often be tough due to the lack of regulatory oversight of dietary supplements in the U.S. and the  limited information available on their risks and benefits.

“Consumers are really kind of out there on their own, and should confer with their health care providers about supplement use.”

Dr. Miller‘s report was published in the March 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

A summary of the report can be viewed at http://www.adajournal.org/article/S0002-8223(07)02206-7/abstract.