The IP address used for your Internet connection is part of a subnet that has been blocked from access to PubMed Central. Addresses across the entire subnet were used to download content in bulk, in violation of the terms of the PMC Copyright Notice. Use of PMC is free, but must comply with the terms of the Copyright Notice on the PMC site. For additional information, or to request that your IP address be unblocked, For requests to be unblocked, you must include all of the information in the box above in your message.Dr. Lemmo is considered a leading expert on the use of intravenous vitamin C (i.e. ascorbic acid, ascorbate) and cancer. He has given well over 17,000 infusions of vitamin C-based treatments to people with cancer beginning in 1999. As a consequence, he has pioneered a unique and customized protocol that may differ from other physicians, which Dr. Lemmo has found to optimally help his patients with cancer, live stronger, support and harness the immune system, and improve the quality in their lives.
Dr. Lemmo has discovered that the classic high dose-model of administering vitamin C-based treatments is not typically needed and may in fact be detrimental or harmful for some. Of course there may be some exceptions. Earlier in his career, Dr Lemmo was using doses upwards to 150,000mg or 150 grams of vitamin C in select patients. However, he had also found that higher-dose treatments can place the body in an increased state of stress and actually further exhaust the body over time – more is not necessarily better for every patient or cancer case. It is important to customize the therapy whenever possible. Other physicians who have been using vitamin C-based treatments in people with cancer over time are also noticing a similar trend. Experience can be crucial in this area. Dr. Lemmo’s work has been discussed throughout North America, bringing him to Arizona in February 2012, where he was invited to speak on the subject at the inaugural Naturopathic Oncology Conference.
His ongoing work has begun to influence the model on how intravenous vitamin C-based treatments are used in cancer. Of course, not all would agree with such an approach. While the more standard oncology community feels that such treatments should not be combined with either chemotherapy or radiation, a growing body of data is showing that this recommendation is incorrect.. Dr. Lemmo’s experience demonstrates that a combination approach allows for a “synergistic-effect” to, for example, enhance chemotherapy while at the same time protecting the body (i.e. decrease negative side-effects). Case after case is demonstrating how the effectiveness and tolerance of chemotherapy can be improved when taken together with intravenous vitamin C treatment. Radiation is showing a similar trend, however the data is much more preliminary or experimental. Dr Lemmo believes that the greatest benefit of vitamin C lies in its combination with conventional treatment or other therapies versus using each one on its own.
Those oncologists who are may be considered more open-minded have supported this trend and refer patients to our centre for this approach when needed or when asked. Cancer cells respond very differently to intravenous vitamin C than when compared to the body’s normal cells. For example, a cancer cell makes a rather rapid and sustained increase in hydrogen peroxide in response to vitamin C which results in a “rusting-effect” known as oxidative damage (i.e. this is how some of the more classic chemotherapy agents work to kill cancer along with radiation therapy). Normal or healthy cells do not respond this way with vitamin C. This phenomenon makes intravenous vitamin C a very unique and targeted treatment unlike any other chemotherapy-like medicine. It is important that each intravenous treatment be tailored to the individual patient and particular situation. Protocols are adjusted based on how the patient is feeling, the type of cancer(s), conventional treatments they are receiving, and what is financially feasible over time as well.
Supportive ingredients alongside the vitamin C appears to assist in enhancing the effectiveness of the treatment which includes supporting and harnessing the immune-system (i.e. immuno-oncology). Typically, a person could receive 2-3 treatments per week and the duration depends on how a patient responds and tolerates the treatment. In the beginning, it is advised that a person try a treatment cycle for at least 8 weeks to help assess the potential benefit of treatment. Doses are started low and gradually increased to better customize a person’s individual tolerance. Similar to a treating medical oncologist, there may be a need to adjust or change a treatment protocol at any time. We have many, many protocols to use in cancer care, and the art of medicine is to determine which one(s) works best for you. A 2010 study evaluating the use of vitamin C amongst practitioners revealed, after calculating over 750,000 yearly sales and estimated yearly doses of over 350,000 in 2008, and after evaluating over 9000 patients, only minor side-effects were noted that included lethargy/fatigue, change in mental status, and vein irriation.
Clinically, if these effects occur they are temporary and easily corrected. The negative side effects of vitamin C IV are rare. However, there are concerns and potential side effects to be considered: *Extremely Supportive of the Entire Body While Having the Ability to Fight Cancer* 15 Common Cancer Symptoms Can Food Prevent Cancer? Colon Cancer: What To Know Lung Cancer: Visual Guide Hodgkin Lymphoma: Learn More IV Vitamin C Boosts Chemo's Cancer-Fighting Power? Lab study found it also left healthy cells unharmed, but experts say more research needed WEDNESDAY, Feb. 5, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Large doses of intravenous vitamin C have the potential to boost chemotherapy's ability to kill cancer cells, according to new laboratory research involving human cells and mice. Vitamin C delivered directly to human and mouse ovarian cancer cells helped kill off those cells while leaving normal cells unharmed, University of Kansas researchers report.
"In cell tissue and animal models of cancer, we saw when you add IV vitamin C it seems to augment the killing effect of chemotherapy drugs on cancer cells," said study co-author Dr. Jeanne Drisko, director of integrative medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center. In follow-up human trials, a handful of cervical cancer patients given intravenous vitamin C along with their chemotherapy reported fewer toxic side effects from their cancer treatment, according to the study published in the Feb. 5 issue of Science Translational Medicine. "In those patients, we didn't see any ill effects and we noticed they had fewer effects from the chemotherapy," Drisko said. "It seemed to be protecting the healthy cells while killing the cancer cells." Intravenous vitamin C has been considered an integrative medical therapy for cancer since the 1970s, Drisko noted. But vitamin C's cancer-killing potential hasn't been taken seriously by mainstream medicine ever since clinical trials performed by the Mayo Clinic with oral vitamin C in the late 1970s and early 1980s found no anti-cancer effects, she explained.
Researchers have since argued that those trials were flawed because vitamin C taken orally is absorbed by the gut and excreted by the kidneys before its levels can build up in the bloodstream. But it's been hard to attract funding for further research. There's no reason for pharmaceutical companies to fund vitamin C research, and federal officials have been uninterested in plowing research dollars into the effort since the Mayo research was published, Drisko said. This latest investigation began with researchers exposing human ovarian cancer cells to vitamin C in the lab. They found that the cells suffered DNA damage and died off, while normal cells were left unharmed. The researchers then tested vitamin C on mice with induced ovarian cancer. The vitamin appeared to help chemotherapy drugs either inhibit the growth of tumors or help shrink them. Finally, the team conducted a pilot phase clinical trial involving 27 patients with stage III or stage IV ovarian cancer.
The patients who received intravenous vitamin C along with their chemotherapy reported less toxicity of the brain, bone marrow and major organs, the investigators found. These patients also appeared to add nearly 8.75 months to the time before their disease relapsed and progressed, compared with people who only received chemotherapy. The researchers did note that the study was not designed to test the statistical significance of that finding. Vitamin C in the bloodstream helps kill cancer cells because it chemically converts into hydrogen peroxide when it interacts with tumors, Drisko said. "If you can get your blood levels of vitamin C very high, it gets driven into the space around the cancer cells," she explained. "In that space, it's converted into hydrogen peroxide. It's very similar to what our white blood cells do. They create hydrogen peroxide to fight infection." Dr. Stephanie Bernik, chief of surgical oncology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said intravenous vitamin C therapy is not unheard of among cancer doctors.
"I've had patients come in and say they were doing vitamin C intravenous therapy," Bernik said. "I always tell them we don't know enough to know whether it is good or bad." This new research raises interesting possibilities, but until larger clinical trials are conducted Bernik says her advice to patients will not change. "You have to do a bigger study with patients and look at outcomes. You also have to make sure these treatments don't interfere with the treatments we're giving currently," she said. "There may be some efficacy in what they're doing. It just needs to be proven. This is just the start of more studies looking at this in-depth." Dr. Michael Seiden, chief medical officer for The US Oncology Network, agreed. "It is important to emphasize that many vitamin therapies have shown interesting results when applied to cancer cells in test tubes yet, to date, these approaches typically are not effective and occasionally prove harmful in human studies," he said.