Vit C & Mexican Clinics

[Guest guest]

List,

I disagree with Sloan Kettering so often that it is amazing when we

agree on something (see below). Vitamin C usually does not produce the

expected results in cancer therapy. Many clinics still use it in high IV

doses-- perhaps their observations are different than mine. I do think that

there will be good high-dose vitamin C therapies in the future, perhaps IV

H2O2 therapies also, but right now they are still simplistic and largely

ineffective.

After seeing thousands of cancer sufferers on both sides of the border

get every type of cancer treatment imaginable, I do have a few opinions.

The conventional US clinics are very invested in maintaining the status quo.

If cancer is routinely, easily, and cheaply cured what are all the docs,

researchers, and pharmaceutical companies going to do--try to eek out a

living wringing perfume out of civet cats? (How many of you think that

cops, prosecutors, judges, defense attorneys, probation officers, prison

guards and social workers want to stop all crime?)

What about the US cancer clinics that advertise their use of various

adjuvant alternatives? Perhaps a better choice, but they are also too

conservative so as to protect their licenses. If they participate in double

blind studies (even crossovers) rather than relying on easily available

historical data, then they are into research grants and not patient welfare.

How do you get public money to research a cancer treatment? That's

easy--describe the candidate med in terms of percent inhibition against

growth rates of control tumors. This is music to the ears of the

pharmaceutical companies (long term profit from each patient) and it is a

delight to the government as it guarantees the demise of a useless eater

thus sparing the social security coffers.

Most of the Mexican alternative cancer clinics either have their own

(sometimes self-delusional) scam, or they all to often, with reckless

abandon, throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. With most clinics

the patients do satisfactorily while there, but all to often their programs

to not lend themselves to home use. There are a couple of small clinics

where the patients routinely do excellently, but I'm reluctant to see them

publicised as I imagine the quality of practice will sink if they get a big

influx of patients. Mass production clinical services end up as mindless

and inept formulary medicine whether you get it at " Sloan Kettering " or at

" Flaco's Cancer Cure Drive Thru " .

Every Mexican clinic has a few true believers. Ignore the testimonies

and ask about the welfare of the first fifty patients who walked through the

door at the beginning of last year and of the year before. I bet all the

clinics will tell you that unfortunately they just don't have the money to

follow up the way they'd like to. Then they will tell you that most of

their patients come from the US after the patient's insurance and immune

system has expired. If they don't follow up on their patients, how do they

generate those high cure-rate numbers?

I see unconventional methods work every day with just about every

patient. But I don't know what I'm seeing with all the bad alternative

advice over the internet. I don't know which is worse--Nasdaq medicine or

Web medicine.

The solution to all this is obvious: No Cure, No Pay. But try

running this up the flag pole as a potential medical-economic philosophy and

the Healers-of-the-World will give ten thousand reasons why it would never

work--while they quietly haul your butt out back and stone you.

Cancer Tumors Shown to Consume

Large Amounts of Vitamin C

Researchers are cautious about

cancer patients taking vitamin C supplements

New York, September 15 - Researchers at Memorial

Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have found that cancer tumors

consume large amounts of vitamin C. Their findings, which

are reported in the September 15 issue of Cancer Research,

may shed new light on the nutritional needs of tumors.

" This study is the first to demonstrate exactly how cancer

cells acquire large quantities of vitamin C, " said Dr.

Golde, senior author of the study and

Physician-in-Chief of Memorial Hospital.

Although the role that vitamin C plays in tumors is not yet

known, recent studies have shown that there may be possible

interactions between dietary antioxidants and chemotherapy

treatment. Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that

consumes free radicals - or toxic substances in the body

that can also be generated from chemotherapy agents to

destroy cancer cells.

" It's possible that taking large amounts of vitamin C could

interfere with the effects of chemotherapy or even

radiation therapy, since these therapies often kill cells

in part by using oxidative mechanisms. It's conceivable

then, that vitamin C might make cancer treatment less

effective and therefore, reasonable that cancer patients

undergoing chemotherapy should avoid taking large amounts

of this vitamin, " said Dr. Golde.

Earlier research by Dr. Golde and his colleagues had

established that specific glucose transporter molecules

were responsible for transporting vitamin C into cells.

This process occurs when vitamin C, which is used by cells

in the form of ascorbic acid, is converted into the form of

dehydroascorbic acid and transported into the cell. Once

inside, the vitamin is converted back to ascorbic acid.

This discovery prompted Dr. Golde's team to explore whether

glucose transporter molecules and vitamin C might function

in cancer cells, as malignant cells devour more glucose

than normal cells to obtain the energy they need to grow.

Subsequently, their laboratory studies with myeloid

leukemia cells showed that the cells accumulated high

levels of vitamin C through their glucose transporters.

Building on this research, the researchers hypothesized

that human leukemia, breast and prostate cancer cells would

acquire large amounts of vitamin C in the same way. To find

out, mice were injected with human cancer cells of the

breast, prostate and blood and, after tumors had developed,

were injected with ascorbic acid, dehydroascorbic acid, or

sucrose (as a measure of blood volume). All tumors were

subsequently analyzed for vitamin C content. The

researchers found that the tumors readily took up vitamin C

by a process involving the conversion of ascorbic acid to

dehydroascorbic acid.

" Now we know that tumors acquire and retain large amounts

of vitamin C. So, it appears that tumors have nutritional

needs, similar to other healthy cells that take in large

amounts of the vitamin, " said Dr. Agus, first author

of the study and an oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering

Cancer Center. " More studies need to be done to determine

what the tumor cells do with the vitamin C once they get

it. "