The medical community is abuzz with the news that a recent test found that vitamin C is very effective in stopping cancer cell growth.
A research team found that vitamin C killed cancer cells in the two most aggressive forms of colorectal cancers in an experiment with mice, according to a Pix11.com report. They published their findings in the journal Science
Specifically, the researchers found that by injecting a high dose of vitamin C, about the equivalent of 300 oranges, mice that had the KRAS or BRAF mutations of colorectal cancer saw their tumor cell growth come to a halt. It will take a lot more research to confirm this, but it is a big finding and could eventually lead to the development of new treatments for this form of cancer, which is typically very resistant to pretty much every therapy available.
Colorectal cancer is the third most common kind of cancer, infecting 93,000 people per year in the United States along. About half of them take one of the two aggressive forms of colorectal cancer.
A news release from the American Association for the Advancement of Science stated: “Colorectal cancer cells with certain mutations ‘handle’ vitamin C differently than other cells, and this difference ultimately kills them, a new study shows. The idea that vitamin C could be an effective therapy for human cancer holds great appeal, but its track record in this arena has been highly controversial, with clinical studies producing contradictory results.
“Several ongoing clinical studies are exploring whether a therapeutic effect may require a high plasma level of vitamin C that can be achieved only by intravenous, not oral, administration. In the meantime, the molecular mechanism by which vitamin C might selectively kill cancer cells remains unclear.
“In this study, Jihye Yun and colleagues studied human colorectal cancer (CRC) cells with certain mutations in genes known as KRAS and BRAF, which regulate cell growth. They show that these cells take up the oxidized form of vitamin C through a certain receptor that is specifically over-expressed in the mutant cells. This leads to oxidative stress, which in turn inactivates an enzyme required for growth of mutant but not normal cells.
“Consistent with the cell culture results, the authors found that administration of high-dose vitamin C to mice bearing intestinal tumors with the KRAS mutation inhibited tumor growth. Moving forward, scientists can begin to explore whether the selective toxicity of vitamin C to these cells could be exploited to create vitamin C-based therapies.”