High doses of vitamin C may help prevent cancer
Scientists find that vitamin C in the form of ascorbate killed cancer cells in the laboratory.
13/09/05 New research suggests that high doses of vitamin C injected into the bloodstream may help in combating cancer.
Scientists found that vitamin C in the form of ascorbate killed cancer cells in the laboratory. But the effective dose was so high it could only be delivered by infusion into the blood.
The findings appear to contradict earlier studies showing no cancer benefit from vitamin C. However, the researchers point out that those trials only investigated orally taken vitamins.
In the latest study, a team led by Dr Mark Levine, from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, conducted laboratory experiments that simulated clinical infusions of vitamin C. Cultures of nine cancer and four normal cell types were studied by exposing them to high doses of ascorbate.
