Vitamin C cancer drug
What is it? Isolated in 1928, vitamin C is essential for the development and maintenance of connective tissues. It plays an important role in bone formation, wound healing and the maintenance of healthy gums. Vitamin C plays an important role in a number of metabolic functions including the activation of the B vitamin, folic acid, the conversion of cholesterol to bile acids and the conversion of the amino acid, tryptophan, to the neurotransmitter, serotonin. It is an antioxidant that protects body from free radical damage. It is used as therapeutic agent in many diseases and disorders. Vitamin C protects the immune system, reduces the severity of allergic reactions and helps to fight off infections. However the significance and beneficial effect of vitamin C in respect to human disease such as cancer, atherosclerosis, diabetes, neurodegenerative disease and metal toxicity however remains equivocal. Thus further continuous uninterrupted efforts may open new vistas to understand its significance in disease management.
Where it is? Vitamin C is found in citrus fruits, green peppers, red peppers, strawberries, tomatoes, broccoli, brussels sprouts, turnip, Indian gooseberry and other leafy vegetables. The animal sources are poor in vitamin C content and the level is usually <30–40 mg/100 g. Therefore plant sources become important because of high content of vitamin C up to 5,000 mg/100 g. It’s absorption in the buccal cavity is by passive diffusion however in gastrointestinal tract absorption is by active sodium dependent vitamin C transporters (SVCT). Also you can buy vitamin powder.
Vitamin C has a number of health applications due to its preventive effect, it is also part of the preventive treatment of cancer.
The notion that vitamin C may have a preventive role in cancer was first proposed in 1949. It was demonstrated by Cameron et al. that high-dose vitamin C improved the survival of patients with terminal cancer. However, the first documented study in which vitamin C was administered to cancer patients was carried out in the 1970s, by Pauling and Cameron. They gave 10 g (10,000 mg) of vitamin C per day to 100 terminally ill cancer patients and compared their outcome with 1,000 cancer patients who were given conventional therapy. It was observed that 10.3 % cancer patients receiving vitamin C survived while all patients on conventional therapy without vitamin C died. Other studies have also confirmed these findings. Murata and Morishige showed in a study conducted on Japanese patients with uterus cancer receiving 5–30 g of vitamin C that these patients survived six times longer than those on vitamin C <4 g per day. When comparison was made between those supplemented with or without vitamin C, survival rate was 15 % higher in those supplemented with vitamin C. The overwhelming evidence supports that a high intake of vitamin C is linked with a low risk for cancer of oesophagus, oral cavity, stomach, pancreas, cervix, rectum and breast and also non-hormonal cancers. One of the most important amenable determinants of cancer risk is diet. Several research panels and committees have independently concluded that high fruit and vegetable intake reduces the risk of different types of cancer and mortality rate was also found to be inversely related to vitamin C intake. However a study involving 34,000 post-menopausal women, reported no such association between the intake of vitamins A, C and E and a reduced risk of developing breast cancer. Intravenous vitamin C has also been reported to have beneficial effect in advanced cancer. Several mechanisms proposed indicating involvement of vitamin C in the treatment and prevention of cancer are: enhancing the immune system; stimulating the formation of collagen; preventing metastasis (spreading) by inhibiting enzymes; preventing viruses that can cause cancer; correction of vitamin C deficiency which is often associated with cancer patients; wound healing in cancer patients after surgery; enhancing the effectiveness of chemotherapy; reducing the toxicity of chemotherapy; preventing free radical damages and neutralising some carcinogens.
Recently a number of experimental studies have observed that different types of cancer cells either do not grow at high vitamin C concentration or it leads to tumour shrinkage. Further recent experimental studies have also found that ascorbate supplementation hinders metastasis, tumour growth and inflammatory cytokine secretion as well as enhanced encapsulation of tumours in Gulo KO mice. Reports have shown that intravenous injection increases vitamin C concentration more than 70 times in relation to oral administration and effectiveness of treatment is linked to vitamin C concentration. Thus controversy is because of mode, dose and duration of administration.
Newly available pharmacokinetic data improved the understanding of the regulation of vitamin C transport, and the growing evidence on the therapeutic efficacy of vitamin C. This has stimulated interest to reassess the feasibility of using vitamin C in the prevention and treatment of cancer. Though different in their methodologies, most recent studies on vitamin C and cancer have two central themes:(1) the effects of high-dose AA on the development and progression of tumours; and (2) the mechanisms of action that may contribute to the anti-cancer effect. Research has also refocused on the implications and applicability of high i.v. dose of vitamin C in cancer therapy. In contrast to normal physiological concentration of AA (0.1 mmol/L) pharmacological concentrations of AA (0.3–20 mmol/L) selectively targets and kills tumour cells in invitro. This tumour-killing phenomenon is attributable to the pro-oxidant property of vitamin C, which, at high concentration mediates the production of hydrogen peroxide thus provides a potential mechanism of action for the anti-tumour effect of vitamin C and it’s implication as a pro-drug in cancer treatment. However, it is difficult to assess the precise contribution of vitamin C in the clinical outcome, as subjects under examination simultaneously receive different therapeutic treatments. Therefore, the therapeutic value of high-dose vitamin C administration in cancer progression or remission is not unequivocally supported but i.v. administration of vitamin C in high doses improves the health-related quality of life even at the advanced stage of the disease.
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