NIH Study: Injection of High-Dose Vitamin C Slows Tumor Growth
Tumor weight and growth rate has been reduced by about 50 percent in mouse models of brain, ovarian, and pancreatic cancers with injections of high-dose Vitamin C (ascorbate or ascorbic acid).
Such were the results reported by the NIH study at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS):
The NIH researchers, however, tested the idea that ascorbate, when injected at high doses, may have prooxidant instead of antioxidant activity. Prooxidants would generate free radicals and the formation of hydrogen peroxide, which, the scientists hypothesized, might kill tumor cells.
In their laboratory experiments on 43 cancer and 5 normal cell lines, the researchers discovered that high concentrations of ascorbate had anticancer effects in 75 percent of cancer cell lines tested, while sparing normal cells. In their paper, the researchers also showed that these high ascorbate concentrations could be achieved in people.
The team then tested ascorbate injections in immune-deficient mice with rapidly spreading ovarian, pancreatic, and glioblastoma (brain) tumors. The ascorbate injections reduced tumor growth and weight by 41 to 53 percent. In 30 percent of glioblastoma controls, the cancer had spread to other organs, but the ascorbate-treated animals had no signs of disseminated cancer. “
Th potential of Vitamin C as cancer therapy has been ‘dropped’ years ago when high dose oral administration did not seem to work. Now with this ascorbate injection form…potentially yes, in this mice study. A lot more work is needed before experts can say that this will work in humans as well. We’ll see…
Read from from NIH News.
Tags: ascorbate, cancer tumor, cancer tumor growth, intravenous ascorbate, Vitamin C cancer therapy, Vitamin C injectionsRelated Stories
POSTED IN: ~ Anti-cancer treatments ~
1 opinion for NIH Study: Injection of High-Dose Vitamin C Slows Tumor Growth
Tom
Aug 9, 2008 at 12:03 am
It’s interesting that the high-doses of oral vitamin C did not work while the injection shows promise. The way I understand it, too much of an oral antioxidant like vitamin C can actually cause problems instead of fixing them. Like you said, this needs to be shown that it can work with humans, but it is still an interesting study, with some encouraging results
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