TLDR: A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in Italy has found that giving cancerous mice high doses of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) enhanced immunotherapy, resulting in slowed or stopped tumor growth.
Maybe Linus Pauling was indeed on to something (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Pauling ) with his idea of high dose IV vitamin C: skipping the article as it seems to take political positions ("But if this work makes some headlines of the “Linus Pauling was right” sort, don’t believe them") and using Wikipedia as a source instead:
Pauling's work on vitamin C in his later years generated much controversy. He was first introduced to the concept of high-dose vitamin C by biochemist Irwin Stone in 1966. After becoming convinced of its worth, Pauling took 3 grams of vitamin C every day to prevent colds.[13] Excited by his own perceived results, he researched the clinical literature and published Vitamin C and the Common Cold in 1970. He began a long clinical collaboration with the British cancer surgeon Ewan Cameron in 1971 on the use of intravenous and oral vitamin C as cancer therapy for terminal patients.[143] Cameron and Pauling wrote many technical papers and a popular book, Cancer and Vitamin C, that discussed their observations. Pauling made vitamin C popular with the public[144] and eventually published two studies of a group of 100 allegedly terminal patients that claimed vitamin C increased survival by as much as four times compared to untreated patients
(...)
medical establishment concluded that his claims that vitamin C could prevent colds or treat cancer were quackery.[13][151] Pauling denounced the conclusions of these studies and handling of the final study as "fraud and deliberate misrepresentation",[152][153] and criticized the studies for using oral, rather than intravenous vitamin C[154] (which was the dosing method used for the first ten days of Pauling's original study
I wouldn't say that "But if this work makes some headlines of the “Linus Pauling was right” sort, don’t believe them" is a political position. Pauling was wrong: he didn't say "High dose IV vitamin C is helpful", he said (paraphrased) "High dose IV vitamin C is helpful because it is an antioxidant". But it's not an antioxidant, as this paper shows, it's an oxidant! It's helpful, but for exactly the wrong reason, and low-dose vitamin C is an antioxidant, which is harmful! So if Pauling were correct you'd expect other antioxidants to help, but they also cause harm (in oncology).
So basically this guy who said vitamin C IV in high doses fights cancer was wrong and should be never rehabilitated , because the hypothetised mechanism was the other way around? (anti oxidant -> oxidant)
I think we are forgetting the most important result there: vitamin C IV in high doses fights cancer.
> I think we are forgetting the most important result there: vitamin C IV in high doses fights cancer.
No, that's wrong. Vitamin C IV in high doses makes certain chemotherapy work better to fight cancer. And does so in a way that Pauling wouldn't have been able to predict, his mechanism of action would imply that it would reduce the effectiveness of the chemotherapy.
Not sure who downvoted you, but thanks for sharing this important snippet of history. Without pioneers (who often don't get it fully right), there'd no discoveries or progress.
Maybe Linus Pauling was indeed on to something (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Pauling ) with his idea of high dose IV vitamin C: skipping the article as it seems to take political positions ("But if this work makes some headlines of the “Linus Pauling was right” sort, don’t believe them") and using Wikipedia as a source instead:
Pauling's work on vitamin C in his later years generated much controversy. He was first introduced to the concept of high-dose vitamin C by biochemist Irwin Stone in 1966. After becoming convinced of its worth, Pauling took 3 grams of vitamin C every day to prevent colds.[13] Excited by his own perceived results, he researched the clinical literature and published Vitamin C and the Common Cold in 1970. He began a long clinical collaboration with the British cancer surgeon Ewan Cameron in 1971 on the use of intravenous and oral vitamin C as cancer therapy for terminal patients.[143] Cameron and Pauling wrote many technical papers and a popular book, Cancer and Vitamin C, that discussed their observations. Pauling made vitamin C popular with the public[144] and eventually published two studies of a group of 100 allegedly terminal patients that claimed vitamin C increased survival by as much as four times compared to untreated patients
(...)
medical establishment concluded that his claims that vitamin C could prevent colds or treat cancer were quackery.[13][151] Pauling denounced the conclusions of these studies and handling of the final study as "fraud and deliberate misrepresentation",[152][153] and criticized the studies for using oral, rather than intravenous vitamin C[154] (which was the dosing method used for the first ten days of Pauling's original study