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| Intravenous Infusion |
You are here: What We Offer > Treatment Programs > Intravenous Infusion
High Dose Intravenous Vitamin-C
for Cancer
BACKGROUND
In 1986 Linus Pauling first raised the possibility that high dose Vit-C can be used to treat cancer. This was met with intense skepticism by the scientific community and prompted the Mayo Clinic to conduct two randomized control trials. The trials showed that Vit-C is totally ineffective. These findings account for the residual resistance and doubt in the medical community in the use of Vit-C as a form of treatment for cancer. What was not recognized was that Dr. Pauling administered part of the Vit-C intravenously while the Mayo Clinic study only used orally administered Vit-C. As you will see, there is a profound difference between the two routes of administration.
RESEARCH
Mark Levine, MD, and his team of researchers at the NIH-NIDDK, led a team of researchers that established two primary concepts in the mechanism of action of Vit-C. First, Vit-C is so rapidly removed from your body that the absorption rate and the secretion rate reache an equilibrium in your blood at a relatively low oral dose of around 350 mg. When given intravenously at the dose of 50 to 100 grams (more than 100 times than oral dose) the blood concentration can reach a much higher level. It is at this level that Vit-C can kill cancer cells. Second, at high blood concentration, Vit-C is a pro-drug for hydrogen peroxide which is a powerful free radical and is toxic to cells. Normal, healthy cells possess a natural antioxidant that neutralizes hydrogen peroxide and thus are not harmed. However, cancer cells are deficient in this antioxidant and therefore are killed by hydrogen peroxide. Dr. Levine also demonstrated in an in-vitro model the effectiveness of Vit-C against a panel of cancel cell lines.
There are also a number of case reports published in peer reviewed medical journals that meet the quality standard set by the NCI-National Cancer Institute. This demonstrated that a small number of patients have responded to high dose IV Vit-C infusion treatment, after all other treatments have failed.
What is yet to be available is experimental data demonstrating the effectiveness of Vit-C against cancer in animal models and most importantly data from randomized clinical controlled trial (the gold standard).
CONCLUSION
The use of Vit-C as cancer therapy presents some unique features that are worth considering. From a vast pool of clinical experience, the use of high dose IV Vit-C has essentially no side-effects, in contrast to all chemotherapy drugs and radiation therapy. Since IV Vit-C works just like chemotherapy and radiation therapy by releasing free radicals, there are no contraindications to use them together. In fact, Vit-C may work synergistically with chemotherapy and potentiate its effect.
However, there are some disadvantages. The course of therapy is long and intense, two to three times per week (2 hours each) and over an entire year. If insurance does not cover the therapy, it can cost over $20,000 for the one year’s course of treatment.
When evaluating new innovative cancer treatments we need to meet three basic steps:
One: There is a clinical plausibility – credible case reports.
Two: There is a biological plausibility – the mechanism of action is clear.
Three: Proven clinical effectiveness – randomized control trial.
High dose IV Vit-C therapy has met the first two steps. It is unfortunate that it would take many years before the last step can be accomplished.
We feel compelled to offer this treatment to patients when there are no other choices even though definitive clinical evidence that it is effective is not yet available.
