Study of blood vitamin C in lung and bladder cancer patients before and after treatment with ascorbic acid. A preliminary report
Greco, A.M.; Gentile, M.; Di Filippo, O.; Coppola, A.
Acta Vitaminologica et Enzymologica 4(1-2): 155-162
1982
ISSN/ISBN: 0300-8924 PMID: 7124563 Document Number: 195542
A systematic study of blood vitamin C values in patients with cancer and an evaluation of their modifications when the patients were treated by mouth with large doses, 5 g ascorbic acid daily, were made. To avoid any interference with intestinal vitamin C absorption, all patients with digestive tract cancer were excluded. Results from 24 lung cancer and 35 bladder cancer patients, operable or not, of different sex and age, showed subclinical vitamin C deficiency in most subjects; the average blood ascorbic acid approached the lower physiological range, very low in the younger patients. Periodic blood vitamin C values of unoperable and operated patients treated with large doses of ascorbic acid showed a rapid increase of the blood concentration which frequently was over 1500 mu g/100 ml, the higher normal range.