Vitamin C: Essential for Health - But a Cure for Cancer?

Ascorbic acid is essential for a healthy body.

But what role does this vitamin actually play in preventing or even curing diseases?

Rumors are circulating that high doses of vitamin C could be used against cancer. In the USA in particular, high doses of intravenous vitamin C have been advertised by various suppliers as a potential cancer treatment. However, it is important to emphasize that surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are still the only approved and scientifically proven forms of treatment for tumor diseases. Leading patients into alternative treatment with high-dose vitamin C can be dangerous, as there is insufficient clinical data for this application.

Nevertheless, it is worth examining the scientific reasoning behind the claim that vitamin C may have a role in cancer. Although it should not be used to treat cancer, vitamin C is undeniably beneficial to health.

Vitamin C and its role in the body

The preventive effect of vitamin C on chronic diseases can be attributed to its antioxidant capacity and support of a healthy immune system.

It is also assumed that vitamin C in very high concentrations can have an antiproliferative effect on cancer cells [4]. This means that vitamin C could influence the ability of tumor cells to divide.

It has also been observed that a very high dose of vitamin C can make cancer cells more sensitive to certain cytostatic drugs [5]. These are both points that affect the cell division of cancer cells and could slow down their growth.

Chemotherapies have massive side effects that weaken the patient, as they are designed for rapidly dividing cells, which include not only cancer cells but also cells of the immune system that are also destroyed by the therapy. In order to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy, vitamin C was tested as a complementary therapeutic agent and was able to reduce the toxicity of some chemotherapeutic agents in animal experiments, but above all to support the immune system [6,7].

Vitamin C deficiency during Chemotherapy

Tumor patients are often prone to vitamin C deficiency due to their altered metabolism [8]. Despite a normal intake, the serum concentration of the vitamin can remain low, which is due to an increased requirement.

During cancer and the resulting treatment, there is a massively increased consumption of the antioxidant to detoxify reactive oxygen radicals, which are increasingly formed during surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.

Oxidative stress and wound healing increase the need for vitamin C to keep the body in balance despite the high level of stress [9].

The FDA's intervention in the USA

At the end of 2010, the FDA, which is responsible for monitoring food and drugs in the USA, asked the Californian company McGuff to stop manufacturing its intravenous vitamin C preparations. There was initially a great deal of excitement about this.



Why did the FDA intervene?

The FDA monitors the marketing of drugs and checks whether they are safe and effective. In contrast to conventional vitamin C supplements, which are used as a dietary supplement, the intravenous version was considered a drug that was supposed to be used for healing. However, this effectiveness could not be confirmed.

The FDA's verdict was that the preparations, which enter the bloodstream in very high concentrations, were not merely a preventive measure, but “(...) a treatment for a disease that should not be self-diagnosed or treated without a practitioner” [12].
The FDA does not categorically rule out efficacy, but it does protect patients from potentially ineffective or even dangerous treatments.

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