Intravenous administration of high doses of vitamin C alongside chemotherapy boosts survival rates for patients with pancreatic cancer.
“Pancreatic cancer is an extremely dangerous disease with a very poor prognosis for patients. The median survival with treatment is eight months, and without treatment, it’s even less, while the five-year survival rate is negligible. When we began our study, we thought success would be achieved if we reached a 12-month survival rate, but we doubled the overall survival to 16 months. The results were so compelling in showing the benefit of this therapy for patient survival that we decided to stop the study early.”
Joe Cullen, M.D., professor of surgery and radiation oncology at the University of Iowa and senior author of the study.
The results of the study, published in the November issue of Redox Biology, mark another success for high-dose intravenous vitamin C, which has overcome numerous obstacles after nearly 20 years of persistent efforts by researchers to demonstrate its benefits for cancer patients.
Increased Survival, Improved Quality of Life
In the study, 34 patients with stage 4 metastatic pancreatic cancer were randomized to receive standard chemotherapy (gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel) or chemotherapy combined with high-dose vitamin C infusions. The results showed that the median overall survival was 16 months for patients receiving chemotherapy plus vitamin C, compared to eight months for those receiving chemotherapy alone. Moreover, progression-free survival increased from four to six months.
The addition of vitamin C not only increased overall survival but also enhanced patients' well-being after treatment. They experienced fewer side effects and tolerated the treatment more easily.
This new study is not the only evidence of the benefits of incorporating intravenous vitamin C into cancer treatment. Earlier this year, results from another phase 2 clinical trial involving patients with glioblastoma, a deadly form of brain cancer, were published. This study also showed a significant increase in survival when high-dose intravenous vitamin C was added to standard chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
A third phase 2 trial for non-small cell lung cancer is still ongoing, with results expected within a year. All three trials were funded by a grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
“NCI funding was incredibly important for us to conduct these phase 2 trials and obtain these truly promising results. Our goal is to demonstrate that adding high doses of intravenous vitamin C, which is a very inexpensive and well-tolerated treatment, can enhance the treatment of some of the deadliest types of cancer in the U.S. population,” noted Cullen.
A Long Road to Clinical Trials
Researchers have been studying the anti-cancer effect of high-dose intravenous vitamin C for decades. Their work has revealed a critical difference between intravenous and oral vitamin C administration. Intravenous administration creates very high levels of vitamin C in the blood that cannot be achieved through oral intake. Such high concentrations lead to unique chemical reactions within cancer cells, making them more vulnerable to chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
Cullen points out that despite skepticism regarding vitamin C as a cancer treatment, the results obtained by him and his colleagues, from foundational scientific research aimed at understanding biological mechanisms to various clinical trials, have been quite encouraging and reliable.
At every stage of the process, the treatment method continued to improve. Researchers conducted studies on cells, and everything worked. It also performed excellently in mice. Then, phase 1 trials were conducted, which turned out to be very promising. Thus, progress was simply phenomenal. For instance, in one of the phase 1 trials for pancreatic cancer, where high doses of vitamin C were used alongside radiation therapy, three participants have been alive for nine years, greatly exceeding the typical survival range.