High dose vitamin C involves intravenous injections of vitamin C of up to 85 gm (depending upon body weight), every 5 days, for 8 rounds to increase ’Hydrogen Peroxide' levels in cells. Results can be improved by using fasting and/or Hyperbaric oxygen and the supplement DMSO. Iowa Medical School researchers have recently completed Phase II of a clinical trial showing IVC is effective against cancer with almost nil side-effects.
Intravenous vitamin C (IVC), vitamin C megadoses and cancer - a practical guide by Dr. Julian Kenyon of the Dove Clinic UK.
More correctly, High Dose vitamin C uses injections of ascorbate, and this acts as a pro-drug to increase H2O2 in cancer cells and kill them. Recent research suggests simultaneous fasting and/or Hyperbaric oxygen can help achieve even better results.
So what do Double Nobel Prize-winner Linus Pauling, Ewan Cameron, Neil Riordan at his Arizona Clinic, Assistant Professor Qi Chen and Dr. Jeanne Drisco at Kansas University Medical School, and Professors Douglas Spitz and Gary Buettner of the University of Iowa all got in common?
They have conducted clinical research showing High dose vitamin C, delivered by the use of Intravenous vitamin C injections, significantly slows the rate of growth of cancer - either on its own, or in conjunction with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. And that it reduced the side-effects from conventional medicine while having none from the IVC itself.
For many people with cancer, the issues are practical: How do I get IVC; what happens; and how much does it cost?
Here Chris Woollams of CANCERactive discusses the practical issues of high dose vitamin C by using intravenous vitamin C, or IVC, with Dr Julian Kenyon of the UK’s Dove Clinic in Winchester, Hampshire.
CW: So is intravenous vitamin C really an ’alternative’ to conventional chemotherapy?
"Conventional oncology largely uses chemotherapy to destroy cancer cells, and cancer is just such a complex illness. Current medicine is supposedly evidence-based. However, what happens if you do not wish to have a conventional treatment such as chemotherapy? Are there alternatives? Yes, there are, but they currently have a poor evidence base, and are never likely to have the quality of evidence base which backs chemotherapy. Providing the cancer sufferer knows what the evidence is, then they can make treatment choices on an informed consent basis. In my view, it’s unethical for patients to be offered any treatment with a less good evidence base than chemotherapy, other than on an informed consent basis.
High dose intravenous vitamin C is one of these treatments, and we use it extensively in our clinic. It is one of our most effective treatments."
CW: Does it have to be an alternative? Could it be used as a complementary therapy?
"At our clinic, we largely see chemotherapy and radiotherapy failures. Interestingly enough, those patients who deliberately seek us out and wish to try these approaches as a first line option, tend to be the "more well informed" public, and these include some doctors, which is indeed a curious situation".
Vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid) is a major water-soluble antioxidant with a variety of biological functions. It may be important in maintaining proper immune cell function. Even though vitamin C commonly functions as an antioxidant, it can also act as a pro-oxidant, that is actually oxidising tissues, which is what chemotherapy does.
Vitamin C converts free radicals into hydrogen peroxide, a molecule that can damage cell membranes if not neutralised by an enzyme inside the cell called catalase."
Evidence for high dose vitamin C is mounting
"Tumour cells have 10-100 times less catalase than normal cells, and are therefore more sensitive than normal to hydrogen peroxide. Vitamin C accumulates in solid tumours at concentrations higher than those in surrounding normal tissue. The accumulation of vitamin C preferentially in cancer tissues has raised concerns that vitamin C may provide tumours with anti-oxidant protection from chemotherapeutic agents. In recent research from Iowa University where high dose vitamin C helped Chemotherapy and radiotherapy work more effectively, this theory seems disproven".
CW: Why did the original attempts to replicate Linus Pauling’s IV work fail?
"To obtain vitamin C at pro-oxidant levels, at which it destroys cancer cells, is only achievable by intravenous infusion.
Plasma levels of vitamin C between 300-400 milligrams per 100cc are required in order to kill significant numbers of cancer cells. This requires intravenous infusions of 75 grams of vitamin C, (in some cases less, depending on the size of the patient and the tumour cell mass), infused intravenously on a daily basis for three weeks in order to be able to attain these plasma levels. It’s important to realise that the highest plasma level of vitamin C achievable in humans using oral supplementation is 4.5 milligrams per 100cc."
CW: You were right but I understand the new liposomal deliver systems deliver much higher doses. I must say that I have read several research studies that support your comments. For example, the 2008 study by Chen and his colleagues in Pubmed used pro-oxidant levels of intravenous vitamin C in animals with brain tumours. They stated that the only way to get the required hydrogen-peroxide cytotoxicity levels was to give pharmacological levels intravenously. Let’s discuss other research? I have read about research supporting vitamin C megadoses, research saying that vitamin C can cause cancer (which was subsequently rubbished), and even work by Dr Fukumi Morishiga who used vitamin C with an extract of Reishi mushrooms and showed that all manner of cancers, from breast to brain cancer, regressed, with some disappearing. What is your take on evidence for IVC?
"The Morishiga research was done when he was at the Linus Pauling Institute in California quite a few years ago. In fact, many studies have been done on vitamin C megadoses in the laboratory, with animals and humans. Phase I and Phase II clinical trials have been completed on IVC. (Phase II clinical trials have been carried out in Nebraska, USA and are about to be published). Phase III clinical studies are in discussion."
CW: There’s one taking place in Canada at the moment as well. What is a typical treatment programme?
"Our most common protocol is the use of 75 grams of vitamin C, in sterile water, with a number of minerals, particularly magnesium, zinc, chromium, selenium, B12 and some B vitamins.
The patient is infused over 2.5 hours daily for 3 weeks (excluding weekends). The vitamin C level at the end of the infusion course is tested and if this is sufficiently high then some significant tumour kill has happened. If it isn’t, then this regime may have to be repeated.
Lipoic acid has been found to enhance the cancer killing effect of vitamin C
The advantage of using this approach is that it doesn’t carry the downsides of chemotherapy, and can be repeated many times.
The main downside is that if we are working with patients who have fluid accumulation in the chest, say from a lung cancer, or in the abdomen, say from ovarian cancer, then the fluid load that these intravenous infusions involve can make the situation worse. So in those patients we choose other safe options to kill cancer cells.
Concurrently with the high dose intravenous vitamin C, we use supplements, the most important of which is lipoic acid.
Lipoic acid has been found to enhance the cancer killing effect of vitamin C, and the mechanism for this is unknown.
The only side effect we see in this treatment is tiredness due to tumour cell death, as well as increased fluid accumulation in particular groups of patients, as mentioned above."
CW: I understand Doctor Hugh Riordan and his son Doctor Neil have worked for more than 25 years in this field, with some significant results.
"They call it Intravenous Ascorbic Acid, or IAA, and have been building case studies for 15 years. They are firm believers in L- ascorbic acid or ascorbate (vitamin C) and its abilities to kill cancer cells and prevent the formation of blood supplies to tumours. Vitamin C is much misunderstood. Many high street ’vitamin C supplements are deficient - just not the real thing."
CW: I saw that they noted that IAA at 50 gm levels could kill cancer cells, often using 30 to 100 gms intravenously, but less was needed if lipoic acid was also added. They also use vitamin K and get even better enhancement of the immune system. The question is could oral doses ever work as well?
"My understanding is that liposomal vitamin C offers a possible answer. The growth of liposomal supplements is based on the fact that if you swallow a high street vitamin C supplement - even a large dose one - or take powdered products, only 7 to 12 per cent of the vitamin may be delivered to the cells for which it was intended. Conversely, when you eat an orange, the body transports the vitamins and co-factors in liposomal packages to protect their levels when moving across cell membranes. Clearly liposomal vitamin C offers a real ’oral breakthrough’ but even then there is absolutely no research that oral intake can replicate intravenous action."
CW: In Summary - IVC as part of a Complementary and Integrative cancer treatment programme
Cancer patients just want to know - does it work or not? Does it increase survival times? Does it ’cure’ cancer? Or what? And, importantly, is it worth the money.
Riordan, the Linus Pauling Institute and others seem to think improved longevity is definitely the case. And they are all very experienced in working with IVC or IAA, as is Dr. Julian Kenyon.
In 2014, Kansas University research indicated that IVC helped improve carboplatin and paclitaxel results in mice models; and it helped reduce toxicity in human patients. So that was the start.
Studies by Lewis Cantley of Weill Cornell and Jihye Yun of Baylor have shown clear potential with KRAS and BRAF mutations. A report is on the National Cancer Institute website (1). These mutations are present in many cancers, such as Colorectal and Pancreatic cancers.
In 2017, the University of Iowa are conducting a series of studies under three phases of clinical trials (2). So far, after just the first stage they have shown significantly improved survival times in patients with brain cancer and non-small cell lung cancer, whether chemotherapy or radiotherapy was used or not. And there were no side-effects. Now we are getting somewhere. They have almost completed Phase II, and are using stage 4 NSCLC and GBM psatients.
It would increasingly seem likely that IVC does have a real role as part of a Complementary and Integrative cancer treatment programme.
The issue that remains that it is not funded on the NHS, rarely by Health Insurance and a course of treatment can cost 6,000 to 8,000 pounds.
***************************************************
"If you are looking for Liposomal vitamins - you might like to consider the Natural Selection choices. You can access them by CLICKING HERE."
*****
References
1. NCI Review of IVC - https://www.cancer.gov/research/key-initiatives/ras/ras-central/blog/2020/yun-cantley-vitamin-c