High doses of vitamin C injected into the bloodstream may help fight cancer, a US study says. Scientists found that intravenous vitamin C in the form of ascorbate killed cancer cells in lab tests. The findings contradict earlier studies, but the Maryland-based Institutes of Health said they had looked at lower-dose oral vitamin C. Cancer experts said the “overwhelming” evidence still suggested vitamin C was not an effective treatment. Studies in the 1970s first suggested the administration of high doses of vitamin C could help treat cancer, but later research did not back this up. In the latest study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers conducted laboratory experiments which simulated clinical infusions of vitamin C on a range of nine cancer and four normal cells. In five of the cancer lines, there was a 50% decrease in cell survival, while normal cells were unaffected.
