Full Examination of Vitamin C - Cancer - Chemotherapy

Recent headlines and stories about the adverse effects of Vitamin C on the efficacy of chemotherapy have been taken to task by such credible health organizations as the Health Science Institute, as well as several universities with well established cancer research centers. The argument is that not only is the study and its resulting conclusion wrong, but that many other researchers are drawing a vastly different conclusion: that vitamin C therapy might turn out to be a very effective way to fight cancer. A recent study from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center stated "Vitamin C Reduces Benefits of Cancer Drugs" . For the record Sloan-Kettering is a top-notched organization committed to the control and treatment of cancer. They are one of those organizations that don’t get it wrong very often. But a comprehensive Q & A has not been done, every news organization has accepted and ran with the findings without asking one question. Things that make you go Hmmmm.
More and more agree that the argument that antioxidants disrupt chemotherapy has one major element left out: diet. Chemotherapy creates free radicals that attack cancer cells. Antioxidants subvert chemotherapy by subverting free radicals. So if your one of the those people who work hard to get a diet consisting of a large variety of whole, fresh fruits and vegetables, that diet will be abundant in antioxidants. So, as put forth by Jenny Thompson of Health Science Institute - “during chemotherapy, should you change your diet and eat all your meals at McDonald's to avoid antioxidant intake?” And I agree with her conclusion to her own question: preposterous. As reported by Ms. Thompson, the Sloan Kettering study is actually a two-parter. In part one, a lab study, researchers exposed cancer cells to DHA (which they say is the form of vitamin C that reaches cells) while other cancer cells were unexposed. When several types of cancer drugs were applied to the cells, the drugs were less effective in killing DHA-treated cells. In part two, mice induced with cancer were given vitamin C, then chemotherapy, which was less effective compared to mice that were not given vitamin C.The mouse, is one of many animals whose bodies naturally produce vitamin C. You and I, our bodies don't produce vitamin C. But mice do, so any vitamin C study involving mice really has no bearing at all on what vitamin C does in a human body. She goes on to cite an editorial in The Gazette (a Montreal newspaper), “McGill University cancer researcher L. John Hoffer, M.D., shot down part one of the SK research, noting that DHA was mixed with cells "in a concentration that never exists in nature." According to Thompson, Dr. Hoffer goes on to note the 23 studies in which vitamin C has inhibited or killed cancer cells. In 13 of those studies, vitamin C (sometimes coupled with other antioxidants) actually INCREASED the efficacy of chemotherapy. Some of those studies also showed that noncancerous cells were protected. In addition, there are nearly 20 clinical trials in which antioxidant supplementation didn't compromise chemotherapy, while several trials showed a clear benefit. In one study where vitamin C improved chemo efficacy, added DHA decreased the benefit. In Thompson’s article Dr. Hoffer makes a statement that is a fact that should be shared as the gospel; "Flawed reports…alarm and mislead patients and can undermine the credibility of the serious and valid clinical research that is so necessary to improve cancer therapy."

Like my father always said, “Boys don’t believe anything you hear and only half of what you see, - without asking all the right questions.

Keep eating fruits and vegetables and when necessary supplement with Vitamin C – Better safe than sorry. DwB†