Ascorbic Acid in Cancer: A Renewed Hope?

Abstract

Ascorbic acid (AA), long known to treat scurvy, has had debatable use as an anti-neoplastic drug in the past. However recent in vitro and in vivo studies have revealed previously unexplored mechanisms through which AA selectively damages cancer cells without causing damage to normal cells. In view of newly emerging evidence, many clinical trials have been designed to study these effects in patients with different types of cancers. Promising results from these initial trials are giving renewed hope to the use of AA as an adjuvant to the conventional chemotherapeutic drugs to treat cancer, to alleviate toxicity from the treatment and to reduce patient morbidity.