High intravenous doses of vitamin C are shown to change PSA progression rates. 

A study recently published in the Journal of Functional Food for Health and Disease offers new data on the efficacy of administering high doses of intravenous vitamin C (IVC) to treat prostate cancer. According to authors Nina Mikirova and Dr. Ronald Hunninghake, IVC is a common therapy used by naturopathic doctors and holistic oncology healthcare practitioners to treat cancer; several studies demonstrate IVC’s efficacy as an adjuvant treatment.

Commissioned by Riordan Clinic, the study set out to investigate the potential that high doses of ascorbic acid have in treating prostate cancer. Riordan said the study was conducted using 20 years of clinical data from Riordan’s database. The study, titled "Changes in the rate of PSA progression and the level of alkaline phosphatase during high dose vitamin C treatment of patients with prostate cancer," was designed to determine whether or not IVC therapy could suppress prostate cancer tumor growth and if it had any effect on the suppression of metastatic osteoclastic processes (bone for example) expressed by alkaline phosphate levels.

Researchers, said Riordan, collected data on tumor stage, Gleason score, Serum Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) levels, alkaline phosphate levels (ALPs) and metastases locations. Study authors noted that there appeared to be a correlation between high-dose IVC treatments and tumor growth, as well as with decreased levels of PSA, as IVC frequency increases. “As the PSA concentration varies depending upon tumor differentiation, tumor volume, and the extent of disease,” remarked researchers, “the relationship between the PSA rate of change and frequencies of IVC treatment may indicate an inhibitory effect of the treatment on the prostate cancer.”

Riordan said the study is the first to address the dynamic changes of the readily available biomarker metastasis ALP during high-dose IVC. ALP levels, explained Riordan, have been connected to the progression of skeletal metastases in prostate cancer patients and can be a significant predictor of death from the disease.

"We underlined the possibility of ALP decline,” said Mikirova, “which is a marker of suppression of osteoblast bone formation by IVC treatment. In the several cases where we found both PSA and ALP measurements recorded, these variables tended to track each other, and they tended to both decrease during IVC therapy."