Kiwi researchers start to uncover vitamin C’s potential as cancer fighter

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Kiwi researchers start to uncover vitamin C’s potential as cancer fighter

Fiona Cassie

Fiona Cassie

Gabi Dachs
University of Otago associate professor Gabi Dachs

In a world first, New Zealand scientists have shown that vitamin C, in high-dose infusions, infiltrates cancer tumours. Fiona Cassie finds out what this means for the unproven, but popular, complementary therapy

High-dose vitamin C infusions can get into cancer tumours even though the vitamin C quickly disappears from patients’ bloodstreams, a Christchurch res
References
  1. Dachs GU, Gandhi J, Wohlrab C et al. Vitamin C administration by intravenous infusion increases tumor ascorbate content in patients with colon cancer: a clinical intervention study. Frontiers in Oncology 2021;10:2984. Online 11 January.
    https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fonc.2020.600715/full
  2. Campbell EJ, Dachs GU, Morrin HR et al. Activation of the hypoxia pathway in breast cancer tissue and patient survival are inversely associated with tumor ascorbate levels. BMC Cancer 2019;19:307. Online 3 April 2019. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-019-5503-x
  3. Kuiper C, Dachs G, Munn D et al. Increased tumor ascorbate is associated with extended disease-free survival and decreased hypoxia-inducible factor-1 activation in human colorectal cancer. Frontiers in Oncology 2014;4:10. Online 4 February 2014. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24551593/