Breast Cancer Vitamin C Treatment | Pre-Clinical Study Results

This article summarizes the evidence provided from pre-clinical studies that investigated how high dose vitamin C improves the capability of chemo, hormonal, and targeted cancer treatments. The research fact table is shown after the evidence summary.

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Important Note:

Michela Codini, a pharmaceutical science researcher who authored 21 publications with over 190 citations, makes a compelling case why Vitamin C can “be an excellent complementary remedy to conventional therapies for breast cancer” in her November 2020 article published by NIH.

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Pre-Clinical Studies

1 to 4

The first four studies sought to test the anti-cancer effect of high dose intravenous vitamin C (IVC) in combination with conventional breast cancer treatments. IVC was tested in tandem with eribulin mesylate, tamoxifen, fulvestrant, and trastuzumab. They observed IVC combined with each standard therapy prevented growth of breast cancer cells, but had no negative effect on normal cells. A significant impact was observed on breast cancer cell lines MDA-MB-231, MCF-7, and SK-BR-3.

In all cases the combination treatment with IVC provided a superior anti-tumor effect compared to any of the drugs individually. Evidence also indicates that high-dose vitamin C has an anti-proliferative effects on various anticancer-drug-resistant cell lines, specifically: tamoxifen-resistant (TAM-R) MCF-7, LTED MCF-7, docetaxel-resistant MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231, and doxorubicin-resistant MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells.

5

Another study reviewed the synergistic effect of combining IVC with Topotecan (TPT). Their study showed TPT had greater than 75 times the ability to damage MCF-7 breast cancer cells with the addition of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). The authors further reported “ascorbic acid significantly enhanced the DNA damage induced by TPT, indicating that the synergistic cytotoxicity of the combination observed in this study is related to this increased DNA damage”.

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The sixth study documented Triethylenetetramine (TETA) synergizes with high-dose vitamin C to enhance hydrogen peroxide production resulting in apoptosis (tumor cell death). This mechanism of action is similar to what occurred in the other studies.

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The final study in the table shows IVC in combination with immune checkpoint therapy (ICT) can delay cancer growth and “can be curative in models of mismatch repair-deficient tumors with high mutational burden”. They recommended clinical trials take place to further observe the effects of IVC with ICT.

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