Researchers claim to have found evidence that vitamin C can boost tumour death in brain cancer patients, a finding which could pave the way for an effective treatment for the disease. An international team, led by University of Otago, says research has revealed that high doses of vitamin C makes it easier for radiation therapy to kill brain tumour cells in cancer patients.
In their study, the researchers actually analysed how combining high dose vitamin C with radiation affected survival of cancer cells isolated from glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) brain tumours and compared this with survival of normal cells.
The findings revealed that high dose vitamin C by itself caused DNA damage and cell death which was more pronounced when high dose vitamin C was given just prior to radiation. Lead author Dr Patries Herst said GBM patients have a poor prognosis because aggressive GBM tumours are very resistant to radiation therapy.
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