High doses of vitamin C may make it easier to kill brain cancer cells during radiation therapy, new research by Otago University has shown.
Researchers have investigated, for the first time, how combining high doses of vitamin C with radiation affects the survival of cancer cells in an aggressive type of brain tumour.
It was found that high doses of vitamin C alone caused DNA damage and cell death, but this was much more pronounced when combined with radiation treatment.
The study's lead author Dr Patries Herst, a senior lecturer in the Department of Radiation Therapy, says there is a lot of controversy surrounding the use of high dose vitamin C in cancer treatment.
"I'm finding whenever I present my research, there are always those who really love it and those who really hate it," she told NZ Newswire.
Dr Herst says the main sticking point surrounding further research into the effectiveness of vitamin C is convincing clinicians it's worth running a patient trial.
"We need to have good clinical trials to show us exactly how effective it is in patients," she said.
"Until we can convince them it's worth a try, that it's not going to be harmful, they're not going to commit their patients."
Last month acclaimed physicist Sir Paul Callaghan, who has terminal colon cancer, ended his experimental vitamin C treatment, saying there was "absolutely no evidence" it worked.
Dr Herst says Sir Paul has tried a number of conventional and alternative treatments, not just vitamin C, which have all failed.
"It's certainly not a miracle, we don't have a miracle cure for cancer," she said.
"With cancer, the tricky thing is, every person's different and every person's cancer is different and it will react differently to treatment."
NZN