Can Vitamin C Really Treat Cancer?

Can Vitamin C Really Treat Cancer?

by Boomeryearbook.com

Studies in mice and trials already under way to test similar studies in humans suggests that Vitamin C can in fact help to treat cancer. The idea became extremely popular in the 1970s after the Nobel prize-wining chemist Linus Pauling suggested that it helped terminally ill patients survive for longer periods.
Mice
In a recent study, researchers led by Mark Levine, of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland, gave Vitamin C to mice intravenously. The researchers injected immune-deficient mice with cells from three aggressive human cancers: ovarian, pancreatic tumors and a form of brain cancer called glioblastoma. They found that the Vitamin C injections slowed tumor growth by up to 53%.
Levine explained that by injecting the Vitamin C into the bloodstream, it is possible to get much larger amounts of vitamin to a tumor than is possible with oral supplements. Although vitamin C is usually an antioxidant, under these circumstances it acts as an oxidation boost that kills cancer cells. He also suggests that these Vitamin C injections be added to the conventional cancer therapy. They also noted that there were woman in a preliminary clinical trial getting the same doses of vitamin C as those seen in the experimental mice.
Humans
This trial, led by Jeanne Drisko of the University of Kansas City, aims to recruit fifty women to test the safety of giving intravenous vitamin C, plus other antioxidants given orally, on top of existing therapies for ovarian, cervical or uterine cancer. Though there is only little evidence that this works in humans, the clinicians at Drisko’s clinic will administer the injections to all patients willing to pay for it.
Meanwhile, the studies continue and the Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Zion, Illinois, is testing the safety of these Vitamin C injections in late stage cancer patients for whom there are no other treatment options. To date, only 10 out of the 18 patients have been enrolled in the trial.
Not So Good Alternative
Precise answers on the effectiveness of the intravenous Vitamin C will only come from larger trials in the future. Unfortunately, it has come to the researchers’ attention that desperate cancer patients are self medicating with an inexpensive compound that has not yet to be tested in humans called Dichloroacetate (DCA). Despite the warnings of toxic poisonings and even after researchers from the University of Alberta, who used the chemical to shrink tumors in rats that later died, the practice continues. It is due to this fact that the researchers are afraid to report their findings to the public as they fear they will start injecting themselves with Vitamin C without medical supervision.
There are large numbers of cancer patients that take antioxidant vitamins without telling their doctors. While some complementary approaches suggest that antioxidants can reduce side effects, conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy are thought to work in part by generating free radicals which kill cancer cells. As a result, antioxidant vitamins can mop up these radicals as they often interfere with cancer therapy. You must also ensure that you are not on any other supplemental vitamins in order avoid any complications.