High dose vit c given intravenous (IV) kill cancer cell

[kullatiro]

Based on the work of several vitamin C pioneers before him, Dr. Riordan was able to prove that vitamin C was selectively toxic to cancer cells if given intravenously. This research was recently reproduced and published by Dr. Mark Levine at the National Institutes of Health.

http://www.riordanclinic.org/research/research-studies/vitaminc/

 The Center’s founder, Dr. Hugh Riordan, was a true scientist who believed in the power of scientific measurement over dogma. With the establishment of The Center in 1975, he routinely checked plasma vitamin C levels in chronically ill patients.

He found these sick patients to be consistently low in their plasma C
levels. Interestingly enough, the cancer patients he was seeing had VERY LOW vitamin C reserves. This matched scientific literature documenting low vitamin C levels in cancer patients. Cancer cells were actively taking up vitamin C in a way that depleted tissue reserves of C.

PET scans are commonly ordered by oncologists to evaluate their cancer patients for metastases (cancer spread to other organs). What is actually injected into the patient at
the start of the scan is radioactive glucose. Cancer cells are anaerobic obligates, which means they depend upon glucose as their primary source of metabolic fuel. Cancer cells employ transport mechanisms called glucose transporters to actively pull in glucose.

In the vast majority of animals, vitamin C is synthesized from glucose in only four metabolic steps.
Hence, the molecular shape of vitamin C is remarkably similar to glucose. (Figure 1) Cancer cells will actively transport vitamin C into themselves, possibly because they mistake it for glucose. Another plausible explanation is that they
are using the vitamin C as an antioxidant. Regardless, the vitamin C accumulates in cancer cells.



Figure 1: The molecular shape of vitamin C is remarkably similar to glucose.

 If large amounts of vitamin C are presented to cancer cells, large amounts will be absorbed. In these unusually large concentrations, the antioxidant vitamin C will start behaving as a pro-oxidant as it interacts with intracellular copper and iron. This chemical interaction produces small amounts of hydrogen peroxide.

Because cancer cells are relatively low in an intracellular anti-oxidant enzyme called catalase, the high dose vitamin C induction of peroxide will continue to build up until it eventually lyses the cancer cell from the inside out! This effectively makes high dose IVC a non-toxic chemotherapeutic agent that can be
given in conjunction with conventional cancer treatments.

other source:

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/health-26038460

 Given by injection, it could potentially be a safe, effective and low-cost treatment for ovarian and other cancers, say US scientists.
Reporting in Science Translational Medicine, they call for large-scale government clinical trials.

Pharmaceutical companies are unlikely to run trials, as vitamins cannot be patented.

Vitamin C has long been used as an alternative therapy for cancer.
In the 1970s, chemist Linus Pauling reported that vitamin C given intravenously was effective in treating cancer.

However, clinical trials of vitamin C given by mouth failed to replicate the effect, and research was abandoned.

It is now known that the human body quickly excretes vitamin C when it is taken by mouth.
However, scientists at the University of Kansas say that when given by injection vitamin C is absorbed into the body, and can kill cancer cells without harming normal ones.

The researchers injected vitamin C into human ovarian cancer cells in the lab, into mice, and into patients with advanced ovarian cancer.

They found ovarian cancer cells were sensitive to vitamin C treatment, but normal cells were unharmed.

The treatment worked in tandem with standard chemotherapy drugs to slow tumour growth in mouse studies. Meanwhile, a small group of patients reported fewer side-effects when given vitamin C alongside chemotherapy.


No patent potential

Co-researcher Dr Jeanne Drisko said there was growing interest in the use of vitamin C by oncologists.

"Patients are looking for safe and low-cost choices in their management of cancer," she told BBC News. "Intravenous vitamin C has that potential based on our
basic science research and early clinical data."

One potential hurdle is that pharmaceutical companies are unlikely to fund trials of intravenous vitamin C because there is no ability to patent natural products.

"Because vitamin C has no patent potential, its development will not be supported by pharmaceutical companies," said lead researcher Qi Chen.

"We believe that the time has arrived for research agencies to vigorously support thoughtful and meticulous clinical trials with intravenous vitamin C."