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Here is an entry in the journal for Orhtomolecular Medicine

 

 

Case from the Center: Intravenous Vitamin C in a Terminal Cancer

Patient

Neil Riordan (1); James A. Jackson, Ph.D. (2); Hugh D. Riordan, M.D.

(1)

 

In October, 1995 the author (NR) was completing a clinical rotation

with a physician in a rural comunity as part of his Physician

Assistant Training. His responsibilities included covering the

Emergency Room in the hospital and helping the town physician at his

three clinics. Emergency Room call was shared with a medical student

and the hospital and clinic rotation was for five weeks. A week into

the training, a home health care agency nurse visited the clinic and

asked if the medical student or the author knew of a treatment that

could help a " terminal " breast cancer patient with pain control. She

said the patient had cancer for several years and the latest bone

scan showed that the cancer had metastasized to " nearly every bone in

her skeleton. " She was particularly worried about pain from

ametastatic lesion in the the patient's left upper arm. The patient

was taking I.V. morphine for pain and needed sublingual morphine to

cope with pain associated with getting up and going to the bathroom.

 

The medical student (who planned on a career in pain management and

anesthesia), enthusiastically described a nerve block procedure that

would relieve the pain but, " unfortunately, " loss of function of the

arm, as well. Information about the experiences at The Center with

the control of metastatic bone pain using high doses of intravenous

vitamin C was given to the nurse. She was also furnished with

references describing the usefulness of Vitamin C in helping cancer

patients. One article, from the present authors, (NR, JAJ, HDR)

described the preferential toxicity of vitamin C toward tumor cells,

and presented evidence listing the plasma concentrations of vitamin C

that would be beneficial as a preferential cytotoxic agent in humans.

 

The nurse's reaction was less than enthusiastic. She said she would

ask the patient if she was interested and would also ask the

physician if he would be willing to try something like vitamin C.

Since the doses suggested in the article were in excess of 100 grams

intravenous per day, and the RDA for vitamin C is 60 mg per day, a

positive reply was not expected. Some physicians and health care

workers believe (wrongly) that any dose over two grams intravenously

will either kill you or make you very ill by inducing an acidotic

state. As fate would have it, this patient visited the clinic the

next day complaining of a painful, swollen, left arm. A Doppler

venogram revealed both subclavian veins to be blocked by blood clots.

She was admitted to the hospital and started on anticoagulant

therapy. Many staff did not think she would leave the hospital alive.

 

During clinical rounds, the patient said that she had read the paper

on vitamin C and was anxious to try the I.V. C therapy because it

offered her some hope. Also, the Home Health nurse said that she and

the physician had read the article and were were willing to try the

I.V. vitamin C treatments. The physician later said he was

enthusiastic to try something that could actually have a positive

effect on the pain and disease processes. He also said that he wanted

to clear the blood clots before starting the vitamin C treatment. He

was concerned that if an embolism occurred and the patient died, it

would be blamed on the I.V. vitamin C treatment (obviously an

enlightened physician). He did start the patient on oral vitamin C,

250 mg per day, to prevent scurvy, a common occurrence in

disseminated metastatic disease. The patient was treated one time

with Activase R to clear the clots. An arterial blood sample was

drawn from the patient's wrist shortly after the anticoagulant

therapy. This resulted in extensive subcutaneous bleeding with

bruising of the entire arm, and the site subsequently became

infected, swollen, and hot to the touch. She continued to receive

small doses of I.V. and oral anticoagulant therapy, antibiotic

therapy and oral vitamin C. The infection had not cleared within a

week, probably due to poor circulation in the arm and depressed

immune system of the patient. The next week, the patient's physician

visited Wichita and spoke to H Riordan at The Center. Riordan

furnished him with vitamin C to use in the I.V. treatment.

 

After two weeks, the patient was strong enough to take high doses of

I.V. vitamin C. Her physician ordered 30 grams of vitamin C given

I.V. in Ringer's Lactate solution. One of the nurses said that she

had never heard of such a high dose and she would not administer

it " because it would kill the patient. " She was assured by the author

(NR) that patients at The Center and other clinical sites had been

given 100 grams and more of I.V. C without any ill effects, and that

he had personally taken 60 grams I.V. with no side effects. The nurse

was still not convinced. To prove the safety of the I.V. C, the

author started an I.V. infusion of 30 grams of vitamin C in Ringer's

Lactate on himself. He was seated next to the nurse with the I.V.

pole between them. The infusion lasted an hour and all the time the

nurse was saying " you are going to die " and wanted witnesses to the

fact that she would not be held responsible. As expected, there were

no side effects and after further observation for ill effects by the

head nurse for several hours, she finally agreed to give the I.V.

vitamin C to the patient.

 

The patient received 30 grams I.V. vitamin C on the first day, 40 the

next day and 50 the following day. After the third dose her right arm

was completely without swelling and the swelling in her left arm was

greatly decreased. Most notably, the infection in her left hand began

to resolve, and she did not need to take sublingual morphine for

pain. All, including the physician, nurses and patient were very

impressed. The physician ordered additional shipments of vitamin C to

continue the infusions. Infusions of vitamin C were increased to 100

grams per day, administered over five hours.

 

Within one week of starting the increased vitamin C infusions, the

patient was walking around the halls of the hospital, looking like a

new person. As the clinical rotation came to an end, the patient

invited everyone connected with the vitamin C treatment to her room

for a pizza party. The patient had her hair done and makeup on,

something she had not done in the recent past. It was a wonderful

pizza party, especially for a terminally ill cancer patient, once

bedridden with intractable pain due to disseminated bone metastasis

who, previously, was given a few weeks to live. After leaving the

hospital, telephone calls were made to the physician to follow up on

this patient. He said that she was discharged from the hospital one

week after the vitamin C treatments were began. She continued to take

high dose I.V. C treatments three times a week at home. Three months

after she began the I.V. C treatments she was surviving with

resolution of metastasis to the skull as shown on the bone scan. This

case illustrates problems encountered when dealing with health care

workers who know little about complementary medicine. One example is

the head nurse who thought that 30 grams of I.V. C " will kill you "

and refused to administer it until proven otherwise. Yet the nurse

probably had no hesitation in giving massive doses of intravenous

morphine to the same patient. This case also illustrates that,

occasionally, one encounters a physician who is willing to listen to

his patient and try treatments not accepted by the conventional

medical community. In this instance, both the physician and the

patient benefitted.

 

Case Update

As this article was in the process of being submitted for

publication, additional information was learned about this patient.

Upon discharge from the hospital, she returned home to find her

husband dead, apparently of natural causes. During a three month time

period, in addition to her husband, her brother and nephew also died.

It was also learned that while walking at a shopping mall, she

apparently fell, breaking her hip. She was readmitted to the hospital

where she died a short time later.

 

 

 

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References

1. Riordan NH, et al: Intravenous Ascorbate as a Tumour Cytotoxic

Chemotherapeutic Agent. Medical Hypothesis, 1994; 9;2: 207-213

2. Jackson JA, et al: High dose Intravenous Vitamin C in the

Treatment of a Patient with Adenocarcinoma of he Kidney–A Case Study.

J.Orthomol Med , 1990; 5: 1:57.