A study led by scientists from Weill Cornell Medical College reveals that vitamin C that is injected intravenously killed and stopped the growth of colorectal cancer cells in mice, giving potential hope that the said treatment can be used in human cancer patients in the future.

In order for treatment to be effective, however, vitamin C has to be injected intravenously and in high enough doses to kill cancer cells.

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"More than half of human colorectal cancers (CRCs) carry either KRAS or BRAF mutations, and are often refractory to approved targeted therapies. We report that cultured CRC cells harboring KRAS or BRAF mutations are selectively killed when exposed to high levels of vitamin C," said the study.

The said effect occurs due to the increased uptake of the oxidized form of vitamin C, also referred to as dehydroascorbate (DHA). GLUT1, a glucose transporter, enables the DHA to enter cells.

Once absorbed by the body, the natural antioxidants, namely glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), in the cancer cells try to convert the DHA back to ascorbic acid. During the process of conversion, the antioxidants are depleted, leading to cellular death due to oxidative stress. This has not been seen in KRAS and BRAF wild-type cells before.

What scientists discovered is that high-doses of vitamin C weakened the growth of tumors in Apc/KrasG12D mutant mice.

Bringing Vitamin C to the spotlight may have future implications for other cancers that are hard to treat but involve high levels of the GLUT1 transporter. Included in this list are cancers such as renal cell carcinoma, pancreatic cancer and bladder cancer. 

TagsColorectal Cancer, Cancer, Cancer treatment, Cancer Cure, vitamin c