Tuesday, August 5, 2008

High dose vitamin C injections slash tumor growth in mice

An article published in the August 5, 2008, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported that injections of ascorbate (vitamin C) reduce the weight and growth rate of tumors by half in mouse models of ovarian, pancreatic and Brain cancer, while leaving normal cells unharmed.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) tested ascorbate in 43 tumor and 5 normal cell lines to determine a concentration that decreases cell survival in cancerous cells without resulting in toxicity to healthy cells. They subsequently injected a dose of 4 grams ascorbate (neutralized with sodium hydroxide) per kilogram body weight once or twice per day into immune-deficient mice with implanted ovarian, pancreatic and glioblastoma (brain) tumors. "At these high injected doses, we hoped to see drug-like activity that might be useful in cancer,” explained lead author Mark Levine, MD, who is the chief of the Molecular and Clinical Nutrition Section of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the NIH.
Dr Levine’s team found that injecting the animals with ascorbate decreased tumor growth and weight by 41 to 53 percent. While metastases occurred in 30 percent of the mice with brain tumors, none appeared in animals injected with vitamin C. No adverse effects of vitamin C treatment were noted. Continue Reading

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