IV Vitamin C Will Stop Growth Of Aggressive Forms Of Cancer

High-dose of vitamin C is powerful enough to completely shut down specific tumor types. Scientists could one day harness vitamin C to develop targeted treatments in study from Cornell Medicine. Due to its antioxidant function, vitamin C has the ability to protect cell structures and DNA from free radical damage and is safe even in high doses with no side effects. It will no harm the healthy cells no matter how high its concentration is.

Colorectal cancer can be said to be the third most-common cancer type which appears among people and there are mutations of specific KRAS and BRAF genes which are more aggressive forms that do not respond well to current therapies of chemo. A study published in Science discovered that high doses of vitamin C roughly equalizes to the levels found in 300 oranges which impaired the growth of mutant colorectal tumors in cultured cells and mice. Such findings may lead to the development of a new and natural treatment. They also provided a mechanic rationale for exploring the therapeutic use of vitamin C to treat colorectal cancers which carry KRAS and BRAF mutations.

The US government recommends long-term consumption of vitamin C on daily basis and it included reduced risks of cancer, cardiovascular disease and cataracts, while higher doses than that is connected to increases in good cholesterol, decreases in LDL cholesterol oxidation, decreases in blood pressure and cardiovascular mortality. Not only that, but it can slow down the growth and spread of prostate, pancreatic, liver, colon, and other types of cancer cells.

Frederick R. Klenner was the first physician who aggressively used vitamin C to treat disease and was able to successfully treat chicken pox, measles, mumps, tetanus and polio and used massive doses of it for more than 40 years of family practice. IV vitamin C was considered as more effective treatment than any vaccine ever invented, according to many practitioners.

Doses which are higher than 15 grams are proven to have a pro-oxidant effect by generating hydrogen peroxide that selectively destroys cancer cells in turn. The doses are delivered to the areas surrounding the tumor because the vitamin molecule looks similar to sugar molecule (cancer cells thrive in sugar), thus the vitamin C reacts with a metal ion like iron or copper, forming a hydrogen peroxide molecule which damages the cancer cell. Vitamin C acts like an antioxidant, preventing and delaying some types of cell damage, while KRAS and BRAF forms of colorectal cancer occur as a result of inducing oxidation in the cancer cells.

A fraction of vitamin C in an oxygen-rich environment (the human arteries) becomes oxidized and is transformed into a new compound named dehydroascorbic acid. A specific membrane protein known as glucose transporter GLUT1 enables glucose and DHA to enter cells, but it is not that clear what DHA does inside the cells. When DHA enters the body, the natural antioxidants inside the cancer cell attempt to convert DHA back to ascorbic acid, while in the process these antioxidants are depleted and the cell dies from oxidative stress. Many normal cells express GLUT1, but KRAS-mutant and BRAF-mutant cells have higher levels as they require higher rate of glucose uptake in order to survive and grow and they also produce more reactive oxygen species than the normal cells and need more antioxidants in order to survive. Such combination of characteristics make cancer cells more valuable to DHA than the normal ones. Dr. Cantley said that these results need to be evaluated in the setting of a human clinical trial, the pre-clinical findings may offer a promising new treatment strategy for the KRAS or BRAF forms of the disease, perhaps as part of a combination therapy and their study could lead to the development of new biomarkers that could help physicians determine who would most benefit from treatment, having implications for other hard-to-treat cancers that express high levels of GLUT1 transporter, such as renal cell carcinoma, bladder cancer and pancreatic cancer.

There were studies which showed improved quality of life through incorporating high dose IV vitamin C in patients with cancer, and also improvements in physical, mental and emotional functions, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, pain, and appetite loss due to its multiple effects on cellular functions to its anti- or pro-oxidant functions. However, further study is needed to expand the understanding of such processes. The dosing has to be determined and intravenous injections would be needed.