Supplemental ascorbate in the supportive treatment of cancer: Reevaluation of prolongation of survival times in terminal human cancer
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A study has been made of the survival times of 100 terminal cancer patients who were given supplemental ascorbate, usually 10 g/day, as part of their routine management and 1000 matched controls, similar patients who had received the same treatment except for the ascorbate. The two sets of patients were in part the same as those used in our earlier study [Cameron, E. & Pauling, L. (1976) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 73, 3685-3689]. Tests confirm that the ascorbate-treated patients and the matched controls are representative subpopulations of the same population of “untreatable” patients. Survival times were measured not only from the date of “untreatability” but also from the precisely known date of first hospital attendance for the cancer that eventually reached the terminal stage. The ascorbate-treated patients were found to have a mean survival time about 300 days greater than that of the controls. Survival times greater than 1 yr after the date of untreatability were observed for 22% of the ascorbate-treated patients and for 0.4% of the controls. The mean survival time of these 22 ascorbate-treated patients is 2.4 yr after reaching the apparently terminal stage; 8 of the ascorbate-treated patients are still alive, with a mean survival time after untreatability of 3.5 yr.
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1970s trials in terminal cancer patients found that intravenous high-dose ascorbate prolonged survival, but 1980s large RCTs did not confirm this because they used oral ascorbate.
“Clinical trials in the 1970s involving patients with terminal cancer showed that intravenous high-dose ascorbate extended patient survival in response to ascorbate treatment93,94, whereas large-scale randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in the 1980s failed to confirm these initial findings because ascorbate was given orally instead95,96.”
From Targeting cancer vulnerabilities with high-dose vitamin C (2019) · cites this paper as [94]
Observational studies using oral and intravenous vitamin C suggested therapeutic benefit for a subset of cancer patients, but subsequent randomized, placebo-controlled trials revealed insignificant efficacy.
“While observational studies using oral and intravenous vitamin C suggested therapeutic benefit for a subset of cancer patients50, 51, 52 subsequent randomized, placebo-controlled trials revealed insignificant efficacy.53, 54”
From Vitamin C-induced epigenomic remodelling in IDH1 mutant acute myeloid leukaemia (2018) · cites this paper as [52]
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- Authors
- Cameron, E., & Pauling, L.
- Affiliations
- Vale of Leven District General Hospital (GB)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 1978-09
- Volume
- 75
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 4538-4542
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC336151
- OpenAlex
- W2010756713
- Cited by
- 476
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 24 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 20 · 2012: 15
- Type
- supplementary materials
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Educational Foundation of America
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Vitamin C and Antioxidants Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Complementary and Alternative Medicine Studies
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Cancer and biochemical research
- Keywords
- vitamin C, vitamin C supplementation, terminal cancer, survival time, matched controls
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Ascorbic Acid, Female, Humans, Male, Methods, Middle Aged, Neoplasms, Prognosis
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