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Vitamin C cancer study challenged

Posted on: Friday, 6 March 2009, 11:58 CST

Personal nutrition coach and U.S. nutrition author Jack Challem is challenging a recent study on high doses of vitamin C interfering with chemotherapy drugs.

Challem, a Tucson, Ariz., personal nutrition coach and a regular contributor to the journal Alternative and Complementary Therapies, challenges the findings of a study published in Cancer Research which concludes that vitamin C given to mice or cultured cells treated with common anticancer drugs reduces the tumor-fighting effects of the chemotherapeutic agents.

Challem points out two main problems with the study -- the oxidized form of vitamin C, or dehydroascorbic acid, and not actual vitamin C, ascorbic acid, was used; and in the mouse experiments, the animals were given toxic doses of dehydroascorbic acid, a compound that is not used as a dietary supplement in humans.

This study and the subsequent headlines were a grievous disservice to physicians and patients with cancer, Challem writes in the Medical Journal Watch column in Alternative and Complementary Therapies.

Considerable positive research ... has shown striking benefits from high-dose vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in cancer cells and animals -- and in actual human beings.

High-dose intravenous vitamin C is a common form of alternative and complementary therapy for patients receiving chemotherapeutic drugs and is believed to help bring about tumor cell death, Challem says. In addition, it may promote post-surgical healing by enhancing collagen formation, and increase tissue resistance to tumor spread.

Source: United Press International

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