IV vitamin C as cancer therapy: 3 cases (March 2006)

This forum will focus on analyzing recent clinical studies of vitamin C.

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subasd
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IV vitamin C as cancer therapy: 3 cases (March 2006)

Post Number:#1  Post by subasd » Tue Apr 18, 2006 7:57 am

Intravenously administered vitamin C as cancer therapy: three cases.

ABSTRACT

Early clinical studies showed that high-dose vitamin C, given by intravenous and oral routes, may improve symptoms and prolong life in patients with terminal cancer. Double-blind placebo-controlled studies of oral vitamin C therapy showed no benefit. Recent evidence shows that oral administration of the maximum tolerated dose of vitamin C (18 g/d) produces peak plasma concentrations of only 220 micromol/L, whereas intravenous administration of the same dose produces plasma concentrations about 25-fold higher. Larger doses (50-100 g) given intravenously may result in plasma concentrations of about 14,000 micromol/L. At concentrations above 1000 micromol/L, vitamin C is toxic to some cancer cells but not to normal cells in vitro. We found 3 well-documented cases of advanced cancers, confirmed by histopathologic review, where patients had unexpectedly long survival times after receiving high-dose intravenous vitamin C therapy. We examined clinical details of each case in accordance with National Cancer Institute (NCI) Best Case Series guidelines. Tumour pathology was verified by pathologists at the NCI who were unaware of diagnosis or treatment. In light of recent clinical pharmacokinetic findings and in vitro evidence of anti-tumour mechanisms, these case reports indicate that the role of high-dose intravenous vitamin C therapy in cancer treatment should be reassessed.


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Post Number:#2  Post by subasd » Tue Apr 18, 2006 8:21 am

Some more (recent) studies on related topics (sorry if some have already been posted).

1. A pilot clinical study of continuous intravenous ascorbate in terminal cancer. December 2005.

Their conclusion: These data suggest that intravenous vitamin C therapy for cancer is relatively safe, provided the patient does not have a history of kidney stone formation.

2. Effects of high dose ascorbate administration on L-10 tumor growth in guinea pigs. June 2005.

Their results: Ascorbate concentrations sufficient to kill tumor cells can be safely achieved in solid tumors in vivo, suggesting a possible role for high dose intravenous ascorbate in treating cancer.

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Post Number:#3  Post by ofonorow » Wed Apr 19, 2006 5:48 pm

Thank you.

It was such pleasant reading until ...

provided the patient does not have a history of kidney stone formation.


Was there any evidence in this study to support this statement, or, were they simply repeating the rumor?
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subasd
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Post Number:#4  Post by subasd » Thu Apr 20, 2006 12:35 am

I haven't read the article, just the abstract, which I linked to, and it does say:

Two Grade 3 adverse events 'possibly related' to the agent were reported: one patient with a history of renal calculi developed a kidney stone after thirteen days of treatment and another patient experienced hypokalemia after six weeks of treatment.



I'm neither a expert on kidney stones nor do I know the patients history of developing them, therefore I cannot comment on what the probability of them developing a kidney stone is. Fact is that it happened, and not very far into the treatment, just 13 days.

A lot of cancer treatments often have more serious side effects than kidney stones and also most treatments are unsuccessful in the end. So an occasional kidney stone would not seem like a price too high.

But, didn't Linus also say that the formation of a specific rare type of kidney stones can indeed be accelerated by ascorbate (oxalate)? I'll look it up on PubMed.

huh?

hypokalemia

Post Number:#5  Post by huh? » Mon Apr 27, 2009 5:40 am

Hi,

Searching around for hypokalemia threads, I came across this one. Although now here, I see that wasn't the topic of the thread, but just briefly mentioned. Does someone here have hypokalemia details?

:?:


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