Could Vitamin C Help Prevent Cancer?

We know that we need to consume foods containing vitamins every day (preferably natural, unprocessed food), and in some cases take supplements for specific health issues. We are told, especially by natural health circles, that vitamins can help prevent disease and benefit our longevity overall. But how do they work? Recently, a study has uncovered one of the mechanisms behind how vitamin C may prevent at least some cancers.

This study found that vitamin C could "communicate" with faulty bone marrow stem cells, triggering them to die once the damage becomes too great. Damaged cells that cannot repair or kill themselves may "immortalise" themselves and ramp up proliferation, leading to cancer. Vitamin C in high doses was found to act like an enzyme known as TET2, which helps limit the number of times a marrow stem cell can divide as part of regular cell turnover. About 10% of patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) have genetic issues which impair TET2. This figure is around half for those with chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia. As for all cancers, about 2.5% of patients in the USA may have developed TET2 issues, including those with solid tumours and lymphomas.

Research on humans has already found that vitamin C may help to prevent and beat cancer. An epidemiological meta-analysis on lung cancer found that, compared to the lowest category of intake, people with the highest vitamin C intake had a 17% lower risk of developing the disease. Each 100mg increase in daily vitamin C consumption was linked to a 7% lower lung cancer risk. While this may not seem like much, remember that the best ways to prevent lung cancer are to avoid smoking and, as a global community, reduce air pollution. A review of the cases of nine cancer patients in Singapore found that intravenous vitamin C was safe, compatible with other treatment choices, led to improved quality of life and extended life beyond the original prognosis. In the 1970s, research by Linus Pauling found that 10g (10,000mg) of vitamin C every day, administered by injection, increased survival by about five times among terminally ill patients. By 1978, all 1000 control patients receiving conventional treatments had died, but 13 of the 100 vitamin C patients were still alive. A study in Japan showed that those taking 5-30g of vitamin C daily lived six times longer, and one in Canada found that they lived ten times longer on average. Unfortunately, the Mayo Clinic "discredited" all of this research, by stopping vitamin C after 75 days and only using oral supplements as opposed to intravenous therapy. Perhaps it's time to bring back the correct use of vitamin C for serious illness into the world of research, and at least eventually, clinical practice for the first time.