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

Mikirova, Nina; Hunninghake, Ronald

doi:10.31989/ffhd.v7i7.360

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Clinically, retrospective analysis of prostate cancer patients treated with IVC at the Riordan Clinic showed that PSA levels increased more slowly in subjects given more frequent IVC treatments [84].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Continuous intravenous vitamin C in the cancer treatment: re-evaluation of a Phase I clinical study

Mikirova¹,

Casciari²,

Hunninghake³

2019

FFHD

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Background: Intravenous high-dose vitamin C (IVC) therapy is widely used in naturopathic and integrative oncology. A number of Phase I and Phase II clinical trials were launched to prove the benefits of the IVC therapy. Many case studies demonstrated the effectiveness of IVC, with various degrees of success. Clinical trials using IVC to treat cancer have, to date, demonstrated its safety without conclusively proven its efficacy. One difficulty in administering IVC is determining the optimal treatment schedule. To this end, data from a previous Phase 1 clinical trial conducted in 1998 using continuous vitamin C infusions was analyzed to examine the effects of this regimen on key prognostic parameters. Method: Twenty-four subjects were given continuous IVC at doses between 150 and 710 mg/kg/day. Most of the patients had colon cancer with liver and lung metastasis and three patients had pancreatic or liver cancer. All patients had several chemotherapy/radiation treatments before entering the study. Patients were treated by pharmaceutical grade sodium ascorbate diluted in Lactated Ringers solution with the rate of infusion of 20 ml/hr or 10 ml/hr for lower doses. This diluted solution was administered by continuous infusion.Results: Prior to treatment, serum lymphocyte counts and ascorbate concentrations tended to be low while serum levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), neutrophils, and glucose tended to be high. Improvements were seen during IVC therapy. In patients with initially elevated neutrophil levels, numbers tended to decrease. In contrast, increased absolute neutrophil and lymphocyte numbers were seen in patients with initially low counts. Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratios (NLR) proved to be a good indicator of cancer patients’ survival times (high NLR, low survival). This was also true of LDH, creatinine, and glucose concentrations. In patients with the highest pre-treatment NLR, rate of growth of this ratio decreased significantly during therapy. IVC treatments were also associated with decreases in glucose concentrations, restoration of vitamin C levels, and, in about 40% of cases, reductions in LDH levels. Conclusions: As the result of the study we found that continuous IVC infusions improved several parameters associated with poor cancer prognosis. The data suggests a strategic benefit to using lower IVC doses in continuous infusions: raising the dose above 300 mg/kg/day (20 grams in 70 kg human) increased the frequency of side effects without noticeably increasing plasma ascorbate levels. Moreover, improvements in lymphocyte counts at low IVC doses tended to decrease at the higher doses. In conclusion, continuous infusions had benefits to cancer patients and further research in this area is warranted.Keywords: ascorbic acid; continuous infusion; cancer patients; clinical trial; lymphopenia; neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio; hyperglycemia; safety.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Continuous intravenous vitamin C in the cancer treatment: re-evaluation of a Phase I clinical study

Mikirova¹,

Casciari²,

Hunninghake³

2019

FFHD

Self Cite

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“…Increased tumor ascorbate was associated with slowed tumor growth, but alternate day administration of ascorbate resulted in lower tumor inhibition and did not consistently decrease HIF-1 pathway activity compared with daily injections [25]. Our retrospective analysis of prostate cancer patients treated with bolus IVC at the Riordan Clinic (1994-2015) showed that PSA levels increased more slowly in subjects given more frequent IVC treatments [26].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Efficacy of continuous ascorbate infusion on lymphopenia and neutrophil counts in the supportive care of cancer patients

Mikirova¹

2019

Preprint

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Abnormal blood counts and, in particular, lymphopenia commonly occur in cancer patients and predict poor prognosis. In this study data from a previous Phase 1 clinical trial of continuous vitamin C infusions were analyzed. The trends in the absolute lymphocyte counts (ALC), absolute neutrophil counts (ANC) and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) were evaluated. In addition, pharmacokinetic data on IVC in patients who were treated by continuous infusion were determined for different dosages.During continuous infusion treatment, data for all patients, who completed 6-8 weeks of the treatment, demonstrated improvement of lymphocyte counts in patients with lymphopenia. On average the percentage of improvement in ALC was 22% for ALC <1300 /µl and 69% for ALC <1000 cells/µl. Our data also indicate that lower doses (less than 20 g/70 kg) were more favorable for the improvement of ALC. In addition, the data suggest a normalizing effect of continuous infusions of ANC levels and changes in NLR. In summary, the present analysis demonstrated the normalizing effect of continuous IVC on lymphopenia, ANC and NLR.

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“…Our retrospective analysis of prostate cancer patients treated with bolus IVC at the Riordan Clinic (1994-2015 showed that PSA levels increased more slowly in subjects given more frequent IVC treatments [24].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Efficacy of continuous ascorbate infusion on lymphopenia and neutrophil counts in cancer patients

Mikirova¹

2020

J Transl Sci

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Objective: Intravenous high-dose vitamin C (IVC) therapy is used in naturopathic and integrative oncology. Abnormal blood counts and, in particular, lymphopenia commonly occurs in cancer patients and predicts poor prognosis. In this study data from a previous Phase 1 clinical trial using continuous vitamin C infusions were analyzed. The trends in the absolute lymphocyte counts (ALC), absolute neutrophil counts (ANC) and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) were evaluated.Method: Twenty-four subjects were given continuous IVC. Most of the patients had colon cancer with liver and lung metastasis. All patients had several chemotherapy/ radiation treatments before entering the study.Results: During continuous infusion treatment, data for all patients, who completed 6-8 weeks of the treatment, demonstrated a positive effect on the improvement on lymphocyte counts in patients with lymphopenia. On average the percentage of improvement in ALC was 22% for ALC<1300 /ul and 69% for ALC<1000 cells/ µl. Our data also indicate that lower doses were more favorable for the improvement of ALC. In addition, the data suggest a regulatory effect of continuous injections of ANC levels and NLR rate of growth. Continuous IVC treatments were also associated with decreases in glucose concentrations, restoration of vitamin C levels, and, in about 40% of cases, reductions in lactate dehydrogenase levels. Conclusions:In summary, the present analysis demonstrated the regulatory effect of continuous IVC on lymphopenia, ANC and NLR. In addition, we found that continuous IVC infusions improved several parameters associated with poor cancer prognosis. The data suggests a strategic benefit to using lower IVC doses in continuous infusions. In conclusion, continuous infusions had benefits to cancer patients and further research in this area is warranted.

show abstract

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

Cited by 3 publications

References 41 publications

Continuous intravenous vitamin C in the cancer treatment: re-evaluation of a Phase I clinical study

Continuous intravenous vitamin C in the cancer treatment: re-evaluation of a Phase I clinical study

Efficacy of continuous ascorbate infusion on lymphopenia and neutrophil counts in the supportive care of cancer patients

Efficacy of continuous ascorbate infusion on lymphopenia and neutrophil counts in cancer patients

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