Healing Strategies:
What to Subtract
Healing Strategies:
What to Add
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Supplement Strategy: Vitamin C

Many cancer patients take 1,000 mg a day. Studies show that while
this dosage may be sufficient for a healthy patient, optimal dosing for a
cancer patient may be far higher. Vitamin C is always used with other
nutrients.

Vitamin C (ascorbic acid),  a water-soluble vitamin that must be replenished in the
body,  is found in fruits and leafy vegetables.  Vitamin C helps to support our
immune system, and is an antioxidant having reducing power that protects against  
free radical damage.

Practitioners all over the world use intravenous infusions of ascorbate in doses
as high as 60-100 grams for cancer treatment.  Due to digestive processes, oral
doses of vitamin C can never be as high in the blood as compared to comparable
IV doses of vitamin C.  Caution:  People of Mediterranean descent should be
screened for a genetic defect - glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase - that may
make these high doses of IV vitamin C lethal in them.

March 31, 2006 e-mail communication with Steve Hickey, PhD,

"There are several groups of scientists trying to get proper clinical trials of
ascorbate in cancer underway.  There are problems obtaining funding and also
with institutions willing to host the studies.  My own concern is that killing and
controlling cancer is an urgent practical matter (ask a patient).  Vitamin C on its own
is far less effective than when it is combined with a redox cycling agent, such as
lipoic acid or vitamin K.  Studying vitamin C on its own is essential, but the research
should include a group or groups on these combinations."  (Dr. Steve Hickey,
Co-author Cancer Nutrition and Survival.)


  • Lower Levels of Vitamins C, E, and Selenium in Breast Cancer Patients

    A 2005 study was conducted to determine the status of certain nutrients in
    breast cancer patients and controls.  The study found that the mean vitamin C
    as well as vitamin E and selenium levels were lower in breast cancer
    patients than in healthy patients.  There was a 84% lower risk of breast
    cancer if the level of vitamin C was increased by 1 unit.  (See Singh P et al.,
    Association Between Breast Cancer and vitamin C, vitamin E and Selenium
    Levels:  Results of a Case-Control Study in India, Asian Pac J Cancer Prev
    2005.)

  • IV Vitamin C May be a Pro-Drug For Cancer

    In another 2005 study, an NIH Vitamin C study,  a high dose of  
    vitamin C, administered to 10 cancer and 4 normal human cell types,
    effectively killed 5 of the cancer lines and did not affect the normal cells.  
    Cancer cell death was absolutely dependent on the formation of hydrogen
    peroxide, a chemical that can kill cancer cells. Therefore, intravenous (IV)
    vitamin C may be a pharmacologic pro-drug for the formation of hydrogen
    peroxide. ( See Chen Q et al., Pharmacologic Ascorbic Acid Concentrations
    Selectively Kill Cancer Cells:  Action As A Pro-Drug To Deliver Hydrogen
    Peroxide To Tissues, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 2005.)

  • 3 Advanced Cancer Patients, Given High Vitamin C, Lived Longer

    In a March 2006 study, three case studies of patients with advanced cancer,
    who were given high doses of intravenous vitamin C and lived longer than
    expected,  were analyzed in accordance with the National Cancer Institute's
    Best Case Series Guidelines.The fact that the patients had unexpectedly long
    survival times increases the clinical plausibility that vitamin C may have a
    benefit.  It is now known that high-dose intravenous - but not oral vitamin C
    therapy - results in plasma concentrations of about 14,000 micromole per
    liter. Oral doses result in plasma concentrations of at best 220 micromole
    per liter. The high-dose IV levels of vitamin C are toxic to some cancer cells,
    but not to normal cells.  This study concludes that the role of high-dose
    intravenous vitamin C therapy in cancer treatment should be reassessed.
    (See Padayatty J et al., Intravenously Administered Vitamin C As Cancer
    Therapy: Three Cases, CMAJ 2006.)

(For further information about vitamin C, go to The Vitamin C Foundation,
www.vitaminCFoundation.org, headed by Owen Fonorow

These statements have not been evaluated by the U.S. Food & Drug
Administration.  The supplements discussed are not intended to diagnose, treat,
cure, or prevent any disease.

This website is intended as information only. The editors of this site are not medically-trained.
Please consult your licensed health care practitioner before implementing any health strategy.
The information provided on this site is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that
exists between a patient/site visitor and his/her existing physician. This site accepts no
advertising. The contents of this site are copyrighted 2006 by Breast Cancer Choices, Inc.
Contact us for reprint permission. Website updated January 7, 2008