Is Vitamin C Harmful to Cancer Patients?
In a recent presentation at the American Cancer Society meeting, Dr. David Golde of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center speculated that supplemental vitamin C may be harmful to cancer patients. Dr. Golde had previously shown how vitamin C gets into and accumulates in cancer cells. Golde and others are concerned that the extra vitamin C in cancer cells may enhance their growth or protect them from the cell-killing free radicals produced by radiation and some chemotherapeutic drugs. While different cancer cells may respond differently to vitamin C, it is important to view these concerns in the context of the experimental cell culture, small animal, and human clinical studies. In some cell culture and small animal studies, vitamin C has enhanced cancer cell growth. Dr. Chan Park has found that the growth of leukemic cells from some leukemia patients put into culture was enhanced by vitamin C. The growth of cells taken from other leukemia patients was either inhibited or unaffected by v
