CMJ: Vitamin C injections could prolong lives of cancer victims

High-dose vitamin C injections could prolong the lives of terminal cancer sufferers, scientists said in an article published Tuesday in Canada. Researchers at the US National Institutes of Health found three cases where terminal cancer patients had outlived their given life expectancy after receiving high-doses of vitamin C intravenously.

Lead researcher Sebastian J. Padayatty and colleagues call for a reassessment of the effectiveness of vitamin C as a cancer treatment, currently considered an alternative medicine, in an article published in the peer-reviewed Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Vitamin C is considered an alternative cancer therapy. Earlier studies by Nobel price laureate Linus Pauling suggested the treatment prolonged the life of terminally ill cancer patients, these findings were not confirmed by later controlled clinical trials.
Padayatty and his team argue that the concentration of vitamin C administered could make all the difference. In-vitro tests had shown high concentrations of vitamin C to be toxic to some cancer cells but not to normal cells. Such high levels of vitamin C in the blood can only be achieved through injections and not through oral intake, the scientists said.

© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur