Researchers are now investigating whether vitamin C, when given at very high doses under specific conditions, can act less like a nutritional supplement and more like a medical treatment, especially for a serious ailment as cancer.
According to experts, intravenous vitamin C can help fight cancer and reduce treatment side effects, even though the prospect is subject to further experiments. This suggestion was first propelled by American chemist, researcher and peace activist, Linus Pauling, in his theory that was flawed but partly correct.
Pauling eventually won two Nobel Prizes and helped uncover the nature of chemical bonds and the structure of proteins, achievements that changed biology and medicine. But in the later years of his career, Pauling became linked to a far more controversial idea — the belief that extremely high doses of vitamin C could help treat cancer.
At the time, many doctors dismissed the claim as pseudoscience, especially when Pauling died from cancer at age 93, prompting critics to point to his vitamin C advocacy as an example of the “halo effect,” the idea that expertise in one field does not automatically translate into sound judgment in another.
Decades later, however, the debate is no longer so simple. While Pauling overstated vitamin C’s potential in important ways, modern studies suggest he may not have been completely mistaken.
The story began in the 1970s when Pauling partnered with Scottish physician Ewan Cameron to treat patients with advanced cancer using massive amounts of vitamin C. Patients first received the vitamin intravenously through a vein and later as oral tablets.
Cameron and Pauling reported that patients receiving vitamin C appeared to survive longer and experienced a better quality of life than similar patients who did not receive the treatment.
In some cases, they claimed survival times increased dramatically. The claims attracted widespread attention and prompted researchers at the Mayo Clinic, one of the leading nonprofit medical centers in the United States, to conduct two major clinical trials with decisive results.
Patients who took vitamin C pills showed no improvement in survival compared with patients who did not receive the vitamin. For many cancer specialists, that settled the issue.
