New Data on High Dose Vitamin C Therapy and Prostate Cancer

Riordan Clinic scientist Nina Mikirova, PhD, and medical doctor Ronald Hunninghake, MD, have recently published a study in the Journal of Functional Food for Health and Disease entitled:

 "Changes in the rate of PSA progression and the level of alkaline phosphatase during high dose vitamin C treatment of patients with prostate cancer."

Intravenous high dose vitamin C (IVC) is a commonly used therapy among naturopathic doctors and other integrative oncology healthcare practitioners. Many studies have demonstrated the safety of IVC treatments and improvement of the quality of life in cancer patients. IVC has been proposed as a treatment for cancer as an adjuvant in conjunction with other therapies.

To investigate high dose ascorbic acid potential in treating prostate cancer, a retrospective study was conducted using clinical data from the Riordan Clinic database that covered 20 years of patients' treatment (1994-2015).

The purpose of this study was to determine if IVC therapy could suppress tumor growth in prostate cancer patients and has an effect on suppression of metastatic osteoclastic processes (bone metastases) expressed by alkaline phosphatase (ALP) levels.

The following data was collected at the time of diagnosis and during the courses of IVC therapy:

• Tumor Stage
• Gleason Score
• Serum Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) levels
• Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP) levels
• Location of Metastases

In cases where pharmacokinetic data was available, we found that patients with higher Gleason scores and/or with metastases attain lower plasma ascorbate levels with a given dose infusion. In addition, PSA and ALP concentrations correlated with Gleason scores and the presence of metastasis in our patient group.

There appears to be a correlation between the frequency of high dose vitamin C treatments and the tumor growth, with decreased levels of PSA as IVC frequency increases. As the PSA concentration varies depending upon tumor differentiation, tumor volume, and the extent of disease, the relationship between the PSA rate of change and frequencies of IVC treatment may indicate inhibitory effect of the treatment on the prostate cancer.

This study is the first to address dynamic changes of the easily available biomarker of metastasis ALP during alternative therapy by high dose IVC. ALP levels have been associated with the progression of skeletal metastases in patients with prostate cancer and have also been shown to be significant predictors of early death.

While osteoclastic processes are seen as a potential target for prostate cancer therapy, chemotherapeutic drugs aimed at inhibiting these processes offer only a few months advantage over placebo in prolonging survival time, and often carry very serious side effects.

"We underlined the possibility of ALP decline, which is a marker of suppression of osteoblast bone formation by IVC treatment. In the several cases where we found both PSA and ALP measurements recorded, these variables tended to track each other, and they tended to both decrease during IVC therapy." – Dr. Nina Mikirova, PhD, Director of Research at the Riordan Clinic

Both these dependencies of tumor marker PSA and metastatic marker ALP, resulted from the analysis of the data, demonstrated the clinical benefit of IVC for prostate cancer patients.

The full article is available online at: http://www.riordanclinic.org/research/journal-articles.shtml or http://www.ffhdj.com/index.php/ffhd/article/view/360

About Riordan Clinic

Riordan Clinic is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization focused on functional medicine, clinical laboratory testing, health education and research. Since 1975, people worldwide have turned to Riordan Clinic for individualized, solutions-oriented, medical support. For more information about the Riordan Clinic or this release, visit www.RiordanClinic.org.