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Back in September, I told you about some exciting new research pointing towards vitamin C's ability to slow and shrink cancerous tumors by as much as 50 percent (9/4/08 eTip, subject line "Light at the end of the labyrinth"). But unless you read that eTip, the news may very well have slipped past you: As impressive as the study was, it didn't make much of a ripple in the mainstream media. The latest research on vitamin C and cancer, though, is another matter entirely. All the mainstream media outlets trumpeted the news loud and clear that "Vitamin C supplements lessen the efficacy of anti-cancer drugs." The headlines alone are enough to send any cancer patient running in the opposite direction from this nutrient. And I certainly can't argue with what the researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center uncovered: Vitamin C did reduce the effectiveness of the chemotherapy drugs they tested. And while these results haven't been tested in humans yet, the research team contends that the effects would be the same in people taking large oral doses of the vitamin while they're undergoing chemotherapy. But keep in mind that these findings don't negate the ones we talked about last month. Let's consider the two scenarios for a minute: If you opt to go the traditional route, not only would you have to endure the devastating side effects of chemo, but, in order to make it "work" better, you'd have to stop taking a nutrient that your body needs (and that it can't make on its own). On the flip side of the vitamin C/cancer coin, injections of the nutrient not only eliminate the risk of deficiency, but may very likely have the same cancer-killing effects as chemo, without ravaging your body in the process. Unfortunately, Consumer Reports hasn't done a side-by-side comparison of the two therapies, and I doubt it—or any other news outlet—will anytime soon. But the fact is, while oral vitamin C may weaken the effects of chemo, injections of the vitamin may make chemo unnecessary to begin with. Source:
"Vitamin C supplements may reduce benefit from wide range of anti-cancer drugs," ScienceDaily (www.sciencedaily.com), 10/2/08 | 
