Intravenous vitamin C in the supportive care of cancer patients: a review and rational approach

Abstract

This article reviews intravenous vitamin C (IV C) in cancer care and offers a rational approach to enable medical oncologists and integrative practitioners to safely provide IV C combined with oral vitamin C to patients. The use of IV C is a safe supportive intervention to decrease inflammation in the patient and to improve symptoms related to antioxidant deficiency, disease processes, and side effects of standard cancer treatments. A proposed rationale, together with relevant clinical safety considerations for the application of IV C in oncologic supportive care, is provided.

Keywords: Vitamin C deficiency; ascorbate; intravenous vitamin C; quality of life; supportive care.

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FIGURE 1

At doses less than 25 g, intravenous vitamin C maximally adds to the antioxidant value of blood plasma. Reprinted, with permission, from Mikirova et al., 2007.