Supplemental ascorbate in the supportive treatment of cancer: Prolongation of survival times in terminal human cancer.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Historically controlled cohort study.
PubMed 1068480 · doi:10.1073/pnas.73.10.3685
What was done
A clinical study evaluated 100 terminal cancer patients given supplemental ascorbate as part of routine management, comparing their survival to 1,000 control patients treated identically without ascorbate.
What was found
Mean survival time was more than 4.2 times longer for ascorbate subjects (more than 210 days) than for controls (50 days). Survival-time curve analysis showed that about 90% of treated patients died at one-third the rate of controls, while the remaining 10% survived an average of more than 20 times longer than controls.
Why it matters
This 1976 report stimulated sustained research and controversy regarding high-dose vitamin C as a supportive therapy in advanced oncology.
Limits
The investigation relied on non-randomized controls, introducing substantial risk of selection bias and confounding. The abstract does not report ascorbate dosing, route of administration, tumor types, baseline matching criteria, or statistical measures of variance and significance.
Cited by
- supports Linus Pauling found clinical evidence suggesting that high-dose intravenous vitamin C administration is useful as a supportive cancer treatment and mitigates chemotherapy side effects.