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Review
. 2020 Nov 9;21(21):8397.
doi: 10.3390/ijms21218397.

Why Vitamin C Could Be an Excellent Complementary Remedy to Conventional Therapies for Breast Cancer

Michela Codini  1
Affiliations
Review

Why Vitamin C Could Be an Excellent Complementary Remedy to Conventional Therapies for Breast Cancer

Michela Codini. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

The most frequent cancer in women is breast cancer, which is a major cause of death. Currently, there are many pharmacological therapies that have made possible the cure and resolution of this tumor. However, these therapies are accompanied by numerous collateral effects that influence the quality of life (QoL) of the patients to varying degrees. For this reason, attention is turning to the use of complementary medicine to improve QoL. In particular, there are increased trials of intravenous injection of vitamin C at high doses to enhance the antitumor activity of drugs and/or decrease their side effects. This review intends to underline the anticancer mechanisms of vitamin C that could explain its efficacy for treating breast cancer, and why the use of vitamin C at high doses could help patients with breast cancer to enhance the efficacy of pharmacological therapies and/or decrease their side effects.

Keywords: anti-cancer mechanisms; ascorbic acid; breast cancer; comblementary medicine; reactive oxygen species.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no conflict of interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The three redox states of vitamin C (ascorbate, fully reduced form; mono dehydroascorbate, (MDHA), mono-oxidized form; dehydroascorbic acid (DHA), fully oxidized form). Ascorbate can donate one or two electrons to radicals and oxidant agents, forming MDHA and DHA, thus acting as a reducing agent. In the presence of metal ions such as iron, ascorbate can also reduce them and exert pro oxidant effects leading to formation of the superoxide radical (O2•−), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and hydroxyl radicals (HO•).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Vitamin C synthesis. The enzyme L-gulono-1,4-lactone oxidase is missing in humans and prevents them from producing ascorbic acid from glucose.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The main anticancer mechanisms proposed for vitamin C.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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