Systematic Review of Intravenous Ascorbate in Cancer Clinical Trials
Open accessAbstract
Background: Ascorbate (vitamin C) has been evaluated as a potential treatment for cancer as an independent agent and in combination with standard chemotherapies. This review assesses the evidence for safety and clinical effectiveness of intravenous (IV) ascorbate in treating various types of cancer. Methods: Single arm and randomized Phase I/II trials were included in this review. The PubMed, MEDLINE, and Cochrane databases were searched. Results were screened by three of the authors (GN, RP, and CJP) to determine if they met inclusion criteria, and then summarized using a narrative approach. Results: A total of 23 trials involving 385 patients met the inclusion criteria. Only one trial, in ovarian cancer, randomized patients to receive vitamin C or standard of care (chemotherapy). That trial reported an 8.75 month increase in progression-free survival (PFS) and an improved trend in overall survival (OS) in the vitamin C treated arm. Conclusion: Overall, vitamin C has been shown to be safe in nearly all patient populations, alone and in combination with chemotherapies. The promising results support the need for randomized placebo-controlled trials such as the ongoing placebo-controlled trials of vitamin C and chemotherapy in prostate cancer.
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A significant number of clinical trials have indicated that vitamin C administered intravenously in high-doses (in most trials, 50-100 g twice or thrice weekly) as a treatment for various cancers including glioblastoma, ovarian, prostate, lung, or rectum cancer is well tolerated with minimal toxicity, improves the quality of life for patients, and has a synergistic therapeutic effect when combined
“A significant number of clinical trials have indicated that vitamin C administered intravenously in high-doses (in most trials, 50–100 g twice or thrice weekly) as a treatment for various cancers including glioblastoma, ovarian, prostate, lung, or rectum cancer is well tolerated with minimal toxicity, improves the quality of life for patients, and has a synergistic therapeutic effect when combined”
From Vitamin C-Sources, Physiological Role, Kinetics, Deficiency, Use, Toxicity, and Determination (2021) · cites this paper as [183]
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Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredMost of these studies were not designed as large-scale randomized clinical trials and clear verifications of the clinical efficacy of vitamin C are currently rather limited.
“However, most of these studies were not designed as large-scale randomized clinical trials and clear verifications of the clinical efficacy of vitamin C are currently rather limited [177,182,183,184].”
From Vitamin C-Sources, Physiological Role, Kinetics, Deficiency, Use, Toxicity, and Determination (2021) · cites this paper as [183]
Ascorbate given by itself shrinks tumours in various mouse cancer models.
“Although pharmacological ascorbate alone has been shown to reduce the tumour growth in many different mouse models of cancer, the clinical potential of ascorbate as an anticancer therapy may also lie in its combined use with other cancer therapies3,11.”
From Targeting cancer vulnerabilities with high-dose vitamin C (2019) · cites this paper as [3]
Many clinical studies report that intravenous high-dose ascorbate is well tolerated, improves quality of life, and when combined with radiation or standard chemotherapy has synergistic effects and fewer side effects.
“a significant number of clinical studies to date have indicated that intravenous high-dose ascorbate is well tolerated in patients with minimal toxicity, improves the quality of life for patients and has demonstrated synergistic therapeutic effects as well as reduced side effects when combined with radiation and standard chemotherapies.”
From Targeting cancer vulnerabilities with high-dose vitamin C (2019) · cites this paper as [3]
Ascorbate's value as a cancer treatment might come from using it together with other therapies.
“Although pharmacological ascorbate alone has been shown to reduce the tumour growth in many different mouse models of cancer, the clinical potential of ascorbate as an anticancer therapy may also lie in its combined use with other cancer therapies3,11.”
From Targeting cancer vulnerabilities with high-dose vitamin C (2019) · cites this paper as [3]
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References 70 · Cited by 107
- Authors
- Nauman, G., Gray, J. C., Parkinson, R., Levine, M., & Paller, C. J.
- Affiliations
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Paller, Channing J.
- Venue
- Antioxidants
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2018-07-12
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 89
- ISSN
- 2076-3921 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6071214
- OpenAlex
- W2846137637
- Cited by
- 107
- References
- 70
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 5
- FWCI
- 1.60
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- dx.doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Antioxidants (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (NIH P30 CA006973, K23 CA197526, NIH DK053212-12)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Vitamin C and Antioxidants Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Biochemistry › Antioxidant Activity and Oxidative Stress
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Complementary and Alternative Medicine Studies
- Keywords
- vitamin C, cancer therapy, combination chemotherapy, safety, clinical effectiveness, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, progression-free survival, overall survival
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