Vitamin C in Cancer Therapy
Vitamin C has been the focus of numerous cancer prevention and treatment studies. Almost all medical doctors, naturopaths, and nutritionists agree that vitamin C has strong protective effects against the formation and growth of cancer cells. Linus Pauling, Ph.D., who won a Nobel Prize for Chemistry and later one for Peace, was probably the world’s greatest advocate for Vitamin C. Among several of his books, Cancer and Vitamin C detailed the multifaceted role of the supplement in combating cancer. Until his death in 1994, Dr. Pauling insisted that vitamin C was a keystone in the war against cancer. In 1990, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) hosted a conference on “Vitamin C and Cancer,” which confirmed Dr. Pauling’s basic findings. Support for the vitamin has since waned although it still acknowledges C’s benefit in enhancing the immune system and in battling free radicals. Pauling later wrote and spoke profusely on how vitamin C might improve the outcome of cancer patients in treatment.
Although mainstream oncology generally rejects vitamin C as a common complement to cancer therapy, the vitamin has shown in numerous studies to be deadly to cancer cells while not harming normal cells. Recently, when researchers took leukemia cells from 28 patients and cultured them with vitamin C, 25% of the cultures were inhibited by at least 79%. In animals with implanted tumors, vitamins C and B12 together provided significant tumor regression and 50% survival of the treated group. All of the animals not receiving C and B12 died by the 19th day. Vitamin C and B12 in combination seemed to selectively shut down tumor growth.
This is another example of slow and inadequate progress in a promising cancer therapy that is not within the conventional realm. A new strategy that proliferates integrative oncologists who practice vitamin C use as a complement therapy is essential to winning the war on cancer.