Research on Vitamin C
Research from over 40 years ago uncovered a potential benefit from high dose vitamin C. Because of these encouraging
results, a larger-scale trial was performed at the Mayo Clinic. This was a double-blind study of 100 patients with advanced colorectal cancer, none of whom had received chemotherapy. Those receiving vitamin C therapy were not found to have any objective improvement over those who did not. These results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1985. Not surprisingly, this study was used to conclude that vitamin C was not effective against cancer. However, this study used high dose oral vitamin C, and not intravenous vitamin C.
IV vitamin C has been studied in the decades since, but much of that research was not of a high quality. In 2014, a systematic review of the existing research concluded that IV vitamin C appeared to be safe and possibly had some notable anticancer effects, but no conclusions could be drawn based on the relatively limited research. In 2020, a meta-analysis was performed. This is a very powerful type of research since it combines data from previous studies, all of which must meet a certain standard in order to be included. This meta-analysis concluded that intravenous vitamin C showed no consistent survival benefit for cancer patients.
My experience with intravenous vitamin C in my patients was consistent with this. However, some key research published in 2024 changed that for me.
Researchers at the University of Iowa, led by Dr. Joseph Cullen, conducted a phase 2 clinical trial for approximately 5 years, starting in 2018 and concluding in 2023. The study focused on patients with stage IV pancreatic cancer. In other words, these patients had a very aggressive and deadly form of cancer. They divided these patients into two groups, with the goal of making them as equal as possible in terms of age, gender, race, and disease severity. One group received the standard of care chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer. The other group also received the same standard of care chemotherapy, as well as high dose intravenous vitamin C.
The results were eye-opening: the group receiving chemotherapy plus IV vitamin C lived twice as long as the group receiving chemotherapy alone. In addition, those receiving IV vitamin C had fewer side effects from treatment.
So why were these results from the University of Iowa study different? The key to this study was that the intravenous vitamin C was given with chemotherapy, at the same time. Other studies have given the intravenous vitamin C in isolation, away from chemotherapy, typically on a different day. That is exactly how we used to administer it, and is how everyone else administers it as well.
However, this research uncovered a real synergy between chemotherapy and IV vitamin C. In other words, they help each other work better. Based on this research, we now administer IV vitamin C while we administer chemotherapy, with the goal of achieving an even greater anticancer effect. Based on our results, we believe that it does.
References:
1. Cameron E, Pauling L. Supplemental ascorbate in the supportive treatment of cancer: prolongation of survival times in terminal human cancer. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 1976;73:3685-9.
2. Cameron E, Pauling L. Supplemental ascorbate in the supportive treatment of cancer: reevaluation of prolongation of survival times in terminal human cancer. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 1978;75:4538-42.
3. Creagan ET, Moertel CG, O’Fallon JR, et al. Failure of high-dose vitamin C (ascorbic acid) therapy to benefit patients with advanced cancer. A controlled trial. N Engl J Med 1979;301:687-90.
4. Fritz H, Flower G, Weeks L, Cooley K, Callachan M, McGowan J, Skidmore B, Kirchner L, Seely D. Intravenous Vitamin C and Cancer: A Systematic Review. Integr Cancer Ther. 2014 Jul;13(4):280-300.
5. Jacobs C, Hutton B, Ng T, Shorr R, Clemons M. Is there a role for oral or intravenous ascorbate (vitamin C) in treating patients with cancer? A systematic review. Oncologist. 2015 Feb;20(2):210-23.
6. Bodeker KL, Smith BJ, Berg DJ, Chandrasekharan C, Sharif S, Fei N, Vollstedt S, Brown H, Chandler M, Lorack A, McMichael S, Wulfekuhle J, Wagner BA, Buettner GR, Allen BG, Caster JM, Dion B, Kamgar M, Buatti JM, Cullen JJ. A randomized trial of pharmacological ascorbate, gemcitabine, and nab-paclitaxel for metastatic pancreatic cancer. Redox Biol. 2024 Nov;77:103375.
