Orthomolecular Treatment of Cancer - A.Hoffer PhD MD FRCP(C)

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Orthomolecular Treatment of Cancer - A.Hoffer PhD MD FRCP©

 

 

http://www.islandnet.com/~hoffer/ <http://www.islandnet.com/%7Ehoffer/>

 

Introduction

 

Between 1978 and March, 1999 I have seen over 1040 patients suffering

from cancer who came to me for nutritional and psychiatric counseling.

This is no longer a surprising combination as it was when I first

started to practice psychiatry in 1952. I attended my first annual

meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in Los Angeles, in 1952.

I did not meet another psychiatrist there with a PhD in Biochemistry.

Since then many more scientists with the double degrees have become

active in this field but of these very few actively pursue this

particular combination. Orthomolecular theory and practice drives these

two together. I have retained my interest in the biochemistry and

clinical aspects of nutrition combining this with my education in

medicine and later in psychiatry. The recovery of my first patient in

1960 from terminal bronchiogenic cancer of the lung arose from this

coalescence of these two disciplines.

By 1960 my research group in Saskatchewan had discovered the first

biochemical substance that was clearly related to the schizophrenias.

Not knowing its structure we called it the mauve factor until it was

later identified as kryptopyrrole. We tested thousands of patients and

found that over 75% of all schizophrenic patients excreted this

substance in their urine. It was also present in about 25% of other

psychiatric groups, in about 10% of severely stressed physically ill

patients and in about 5% of normal people but they were mostly first

order relatives of schizophrenic patients. It disappeared with recovery

of the patients no matter how they were treated. I was particularly

interested in the fact that out of eight patients with cancer of the

lung this factor was present in 5.

In 1960 a retired psychotic professor was admitted to our psychiatric

department at University Hospital in Saskatoon. He had a bronchiogenic

carcinoma of the lung and when he became psychotic it was concluded he

had secondaries in his brain. He was placed on terminal care, expected

to die in a month or so. Earlier he had been discharged to the care of

his wife and a nurse but after several weeks had to be readmitted since

they could not cope with his behavior. As soon as I discovered he was on

our ward I had his urine collected and we tested it for the factor. He

excreted copious quantities which we were able to use to help us

identify the substance. I then advised his resident to start him on

niacin 1 gram after each meal and on ascorbic acid 1 gram after each

meal. By then I knew that this combination of vitamins used in megadoses

was very helpful in treating any patient with this factor in their urine

no matter what they were diagnosed. Fortunately for this patient the

resident

accepted my advice (the patient was not under my care but I was Director

of Psychiatric Research at the hospital). He was started on the two

vitamins on Friday afernoon and he was mentally normal by the following

Monday.

I knew this patient before he became ill as I had treated his wife.

After he had recovered I advised him to remain on these two vitamins. In

1960 our research unit was the only one in Canada, and perhaps in the

world, where 500 mg tablets of these vitamins were available. They were

specially made for us. If smaller tablets were used in these large doses

they would make our patients sick because they contained so much filler.

I told him that if he would pick up a supply each month I would give it

to him free. This meant he had to see me each month and this gave me the

opportunity of assessing his psychiatric state. I did not expect he

would recover from his cancer. He had been told of his dismal prognosis

and I did not contradict that. To my surprise he kept on coming back.

About 12 months later I had lunch with the Director of the Cancer Clinic

which had been following his case. He told me that the tumor had become

less and less visable with each X ray every three months and that it

was now no longer present. He lived about 30 months after he was

diagnosed terminal. I had hoped that when he died he would be autopsied

at University Hospital. Unfortunately he died at another hospital and I

did not hear this until several days later. He did not die from his cancer.

Two years later a woman I had treated for depression several years

earlier consulted me again. This time she was depressed because her

16-year-old daughter had Ewings tumor (a highly malignant sarcoma) in

one arm and she was slated for surgery to amputate her arm. This was the

standard treatment. I told her about the previous patient and his

recovery and suggested that although there was no evidence it would help

it could do no harm and might possibly be of some value. Her daughter

agreed to take niacinamide 1 gram after each meal and ascorbic acid 1

gram after each meal. Her surgeon agreed to postpone surgery for a

month. She recovered and the last time I heard from her family she was

married and leading a normal productive life, with both arms. I

concluded that vitamin B-3 was the most important component and that the

vitamin C was helpful. In Saskatchewan under my direction we did the

first double blind controlled therapeutic trials in Psychiatry,

completing six by 1960. Therefore

I was aware of the powerful influence of placebo. However when two

terminal patients recovered on the vitamins it became powerful evidence

that there was more than placebo at work.

I did not see any more cancer patients until 1977 after I had

established my practice in Victoria, BC. In British Columbia specialists

will not accept patients until they have been referred by their general

practitioners. As a psychiatrist I saw patients referred with

psychiatric problems but in most cases the referring physicians would

not indicate why the referral had been made and I would only discover

the reason when I finally saw my patient.

A.S.An elderly woman appeared and when I asked her why she had come she

replied that she had cancer of the head of the pancrease. She had

developed jaundice. Her surgeon discovered she had a large tumor in the

head of the pancreas which occluded her bile duct. He promptly closed,

created a by-pass, and when she recovered from the anesthesia advised

her that she had about 3 to 6 months to live. She worked in a book

store. She had read Norman Cousins book Anatomy of an Illness and

thought that if he was able to take so much vitamin C with safety she

could too and she began to take 10 grams each day. The next time she

consulted her doctor she told him what she was doing. He referred her to

me since he was familiar with my interest in megadoses of vitamins. I

reviewed her program and increased her vitamin C to 4o grams daily

trying to reach the sublaxative level. I had been using multi nutrients

for my schizophrenic patients for many years and since I had no idea

which, if any, of these

vitamins might help I reasoned that she would have a much better chance

if she also were to take more than one nutrient. I then added vitamin

B-3, selenium, and zinc sulfate. Six months later she called me at home

in great excitement. She had just had a CT scan. No tumor was visible.

The CT scan was repeated by the incredulous radiologist. Her original

bile duct had reopened and now she had two. She remained alive and well

until she died February 19, 1999, nearly 22 years after she was told she

would die.

Rarely patients make a major contribution to medicine by their interest

in a disease and their willingness to try innovative approaches. A.S's

recovery changed my professional career and I believe will make a major

contribution to the complementary treatment of all cancer patients. Last

year at a public meeting I thanked her publicly when I discussed her

case before a meeting of Cancer Victors. She added that I had changed

her life as well. She has also changed the life of hundreds of cancer

patients who became victors, not victims.

By telling her friends, relatives and customers about her recovery she

changed the nature of my practice. That first year another five patients

were referred. The second case was a man with a sarcoma of the prostate

which was invading his pelvic bone. He was advised no treatment was

available. His doctor referred him to me and I started him on a similar

program. But he was only able to take about 10 grams of vitamin C daily.

I asked his doctor if he would mind injecting him with 10 grams of

vitamin C twice weekly. After six months his doctor wanted to know how

much longer would he need to receive his vitamin C. He told me that the

tumor was gone. He stopped the injection. He lived another 9 years and

died at age 80, but not from his cancer.

More patients were referred to me each year. At first almost all of them

were patient-generated and often it took remarkable persuasive powers

for the patient to obtain the necessary referral. After assessing their

physical and mental state I would talk to them about the therapeutic

regimen. I outlined the program in detail describing each nutrient and

why I thought they might be helpful. I added that there was no guarantee

that the vitamins would be helpful but gave them hope by describing the

cases who had had a dramatic response. I added that the vitamin mineral

program would decrease the toxicity of the xenobiotic treatment and

would increase the efficacy of the xenobiotic program. If they needed

surgery they would heal faster afterwards. If they needed chemotherapy

the program would make it more tolerable and less painful and if they

needed radiation the program would decrease the intensity of the side

effects of the radiation and increase its efficacy. These comments were

based

on the literature which was developing rapidly. The program was designed

to assist the body in controlling the cancer and was not a direct

assault on the tumor. The attack on the tumor was carried out by the

other physicians including their family doctor, the surgeons, the

radiologist and oncologists. The diagnosis of the cancer and the

xenobiotic treatment used was left entirely to the patient and their

other doctors. I did not advise them whether or not they should take any

other treatment. Very few did not receive xenobiotic therapy. After

describing the program I would arrange to see them once more unless they

were very depressed and anxious, in which case I would see them more

often. A few of the patients had been under my care before they

developed their cancer and I continued to see them. I then sent a

consultation report to each referring physician. After the second

interview they were returned to the care of their family physicians. I

had not planned on doing any follow up

but after several years when I had treated about 50 patients I became

aware that the patients who had followed the regimen consistently for at

least two months lived much longer than the patients who did not start

the program or did not take it for at least two months.

About this time I went to a Festchrift for Dr. Arthur Sackler at Woods

Hole, Mass. We met in 1951 when I was starting our research program. He

and his brothers were practicing in mid-Manhatten. They were probably

the first orthomolecular psychiatrists in the United States. They were

treating schizophrenic patients by injecting them with histamine. After

I returnd home I repeated their studies and found that their

observations were correct. Out of twelve patients I treated using their

regimen 8 became normal. The treatment was difficult since they had to

be given increasing amounts of subcutaneous histamine until their

diastolic pressure decreased to 0. It was amazing to see how comfortable

they could be with that low blood pressure. Treatments were givern daily

on week days until the series was completed. I did not continue this

series because by this time I was using megadoses of vitamin B-3 which

was much easier to administer and equally effective. The histamine flush

was identical

with the niacin flush. At that meeting Dr. Linus Pauling delivered a

vigorous and careful critique of the Mayo Clinic's attempt to repeat the

studies he had done with Dr. Ewan Cameron in Scotland. The Mayo group

claimed they had exactly repeated these studies but it was clear on

reading their paper that they had not. Dr. Pauling did not object to

their negatives findings. He objected to their statement that their

conclusions resulting from a different method of administering the

vitamin C were used to condemn his and Camerons findings. In other words

no scientist can claim to confirm or deny any study unless they really

have repeated the original work as described by the original authors.

The next morning, after breakfast, I visited Linus Pauling who was

staying in the room next to mine. When I walked in he was busy with a

hand calculator. He told me he was working out the electron orbitals

saying that he did not understand them unless he did the calculations

himself. I told him that on the basis of my fifty patients I had

concluded that he and Cameron were right, that vitamin C in large doses

did improve enormously the outcome of treatment for cancer. Linus asked

me if I intended to publish the data. I replied that I did not. I added

that in my opinion there was little point in trying to do so since it

wold be impossible to gain entry into any medical journal, that they

would not accept any paper that dealt favorably with megadose vitamin

therapy. The New England Journal of Medicine, which had published the

Mayo Clinic attack on Pauling, refused to publish his rebuttal. Linus

urged me to do a complete follow up study of every patient I had

treated. I was flattered

and agreed that I would. He said that he would see that the material

would be published. But when I returned home I decided not to do the

follow up. It would have meant an enormous amount of work. I thought tht

Dr. Pauling was being kind to me. Two years later I received a letter

from Linus in which he said bluntly " Abram where is the study " . I

decided that he was serious about it. By then I had seen 134 patients. I

apologized and promised to start the follow up immediately. I traced

every patient and determined whether they were alive, where they were,

and what had happened to their lives. I contacted the patients, their

famlies, their doctors, the cancer clinic where nearly all of them had

been seen and treated. The Cancer Clinic in Victoria did a good job of

investigation, diagnosis and treatment using only xenobiotic therapies.

Dr. Pauling developed an elegant method for determining the probable

outcome of treatment using cohorts of patients who were or were not

treated. After I had completed the follow up I sent the case histories,

with identification of each patient removed, and the follow up study. We

decided to use the duration of life as the only variable. This began

when they first saw me and ended with the day of their death. There is

increasing evidence that this hard measure of success is much more

useful than trying to decide whether the tumor is slightly smaller or

not. For patients have lived for a long time with slowly growing tumors.

We agreed to publish as coauthors. I suggested that the first paper

would be by Pauling and Hoffer. This was because it was his original

idea to use megadoses of vitamin C and the work I had done was merely to

test his conclusions. He was very firm that he would not consider this

and insisted it would appear as Hoffer and Pauling. I think he felt that

as a

clinician who had done the clinical work I should be the senior author.

He did not have an MD. Linus Pauling, in my opinion, was the most

brilliant humanitarian scientist that ever lived. Over his life time in

addition to his two Noble Prizes, he was awarded nearly 40 Honorary

degrees, PHD's and DSc's. I am sorry he was never given an Honorary MD.

His contribution to human health has surpassed that of most physicians.

We wrote the paper using his method for analyzing the data and my

clinical material. But the Proceedings of the National Academy of

Sciences refused to accept the paper. One of the criticisms of our paper

came from some rumour which had reached the critic that I had solicited

patients to come to be seen implying I had selected only the best

prognostic patients. On the contrary I had nothing to do with the

selection and I included every patient who had been referred. Eventually

we published in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine. I am the editor

and I could not

refuse to accept our work. That original paper was reprinted in the book

by Ewan Cameron and Linus Pauling Cancer and Vitamin C. Updated and

Expanded. Camino Books Inc, P.O. Box 59026, Philadelphia, PA 19102.

1993. Appendix IX is this report.

We began to write a book. My case load was building very quickly and I

published a second paper with Dr. Pauling and several more after that on

my own. We finshed most of the book except for much of the detailed

clinical material but we could not find a publisher in the United States

willing to publish it. The topic was still too controversial. I found a

Canadian Publisher, Quarry Press, Kingston, ONT. A few months ago I sent

him the completed manuscript. This contains all the original material

Dr. Pauling had written dealing with each type of cancer and a

presentation of my data based on nearly 800 patients. We concluded in

our manuscript that the optimum treatment for cancer today is a

combination of xenobiotic and orthomolecular therapy and that treatment

must be started as soon as possible. This book will be available in

about one year. Here are the early references.

Hoffer A & Pauling L: Hardin Jones biostatistical analysis of mortality

data for cohorts of cancer patients with a large fraction surviving at

the termination of the study and a comparison of survival times of

cancer patients receiving large regular oral doses of vitamin C and

other nutrients with similar patients not receiving those doses. J

Orthomolecular Medicine 5:143-154, 1990. Reprinted in, Cancer and

Vitamin C, Updated and Expanded E Cameron and L Pauling, Camino Books,

Inc. P.O. Box 59026, Phil. PA, 19102, 1993.

Hoffer A & Pauling L: Hardin Jones biostatistical analysis of mortality

data for a second set of cohorts of cancer patients with a large

fraction surviving at the termination of the study and a comparison of

survival times of cancer patients receiving large regular oral doses of

vitamin C and other nutrients with similar patients not receiving these

doses. J of Orthomolecular Medicine, 8:1547-167, 1993.

Hoffer A: Orthomolecular Oncology. In, Adjuvant Nutrition in Cancer

Treatment, Ed. P Quillin & RM Williams. 1992 Symposium Proceedings,

Sponsored by Cancer Treatment Research Foundation and American College

of Nutrition. Cancer Treatment Research Foundation, 3455 Salt Creek

Lane, Suite 200, Arlington Heights, IL 60005-1090, 331-362, 1994.

Hoffer,A. Orthomolecular Treatment of Cancer. In Nutrients in Cancer

Prevention and Treatment. Ed. Prasad,KN, Santamaria,L & Williams RM.

Pages 373-391, 1995, Humana Press, Totowa, New Jersey.

One Patient's Recovery From Lymphoma. Townsend Letter for Doctors and

Patients. #160 , 50-51, 1996

A new book just arrived by Burton Goldberg, edited by W.John Diamond,

W.Lee Cowden with Burton Goldberg, Alternative Medicine Definitive Guide

to Cancer. Future Medicine Publishing, Inc. Tiburon, California.1997.In

this valuable book 37 physicians including myself, describe the

alternative methods they use with clinical descriptions of some of the

results they have obtained. I prefer the term complementary to

alternative and expect that soon all medicine will be complmentary and

that physicians using only xenobiotic methods will be the exception.

Review of Previous Reports and Present Summary.

The use of large doses of nutrients for the treatment of cancer has not

yet entered the mainstream of medicine, not in the Universities, nor in

the medical journals, or in the wards, halls and corridors of hospitals.

But it is beginning to do so, largely due to the persistance and

dedication of Professor Linus Pauling. He needed forums in which to

outline his views and these were provided for him by the physicians and

other interested individuals. The Canadian Schizophrenia Foundation was

honored to host Linus Pauling on three separate occasions, in Toronto

and in Vancouver. About the same time the National Cancer Institute held

a meeting in September 1990. This was not a clinical meeting. No one

presented clinical data showing what nutrients might do. At this meeting

Dr. Linus Pauling and two associates presented their findings. Dr.

Pauling commented at that meeting " It is very interesting to be here

since, for some ten years or so, you have refused every request of mine for

research grants on vitamin C " . The Proceedings, National Academy of

Sciences (US) refused to publish any clinical papers authored by Dr.

Linus Pauling. The first paper, by Hoffer and Pauling, was rejected.

During May 10-12, (1991) Jay Patrick, President, Alacer Corporation,

hosted a meeting- the Second World Congress on Vitamin C and The Immune

System, in San Diego, Bahia Resort Hotel. He had hosted the First World

Congress on Vitamin C in 1978 in Palm Springs. That one was addressed by

Dr. Szent-Gyorgyi who won the Noble Prize for his work on vitamin C and

intermediary metabolism, by Dr. Linus Pauling, and by Dr. Fred Klenner,

the first physician to use megadoses of vitamin C. The Second World

Congress brought together a distinguished group of vitamin researchers

and clinicians including Dr. E. Cheraskin, Dr. C.A.B. Clemetson, Dr. E.

Ginter, Dr. J. Priestly, and others. Their papers were published in the

Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine Volume 6, 1991. I also presented a

report on the clinical procedures I was then using in treating the

terminally ill cancer patients with Vitamin C. Dr. Linus Pauling

presented an excellent outline of his research into vitamin C and Cancer

but his

presentation was not published. Dr. Pauling was an excellent speaker,

very honest, and very blunt. The following quotation from his paper will

convey some of the flavour of his presentations. " When Irvine Stone

wrote to me in 1965, after having heard me give a talk in which I said

that I would like to live 25 years longer in order to enjoy reading

about the new discoveries about the nature of the world that no doubt

would be made by scientists during these 25 years and said if I were to

take three grams a day of Vitamin C, I would perhaps not only live the

25 years but even 50 years. And that was when I increased my uptake ot

ascorbate fifty fold to 3,000 milligrams a day, then later to a

hundredfold, 6000, then to two hundredfold, then to three hundredfold

and I'm still not sure what the optimum intake is. There is a practical

reason why I stopped at three hundredfold at 18,000. Well, I think

that's pretty important. I read a statement by physicians that they

should tell their

patients not to worry about being constipated. I think they should worry

about being constipated, its so harmful to carry waste toxic materials

around an unnecessarily long period of time. So,it was Irwin Stone that

got me interested in Vitamin C and of course, it was that scoundrel

Victor Herbert who was responsible for my having begun writing books

about vitamins " . So the other day I got a book published by the National

Academy of Sciences on control of diseases. It mentions practically

nothing about vitamins and their usefullness but it does have something

about common colds. A statement that 16 control trials have been turned

out, every one of which showed that Vitamin C has no value in

controlling the common cold, preventing or controlling the common cold.

They didn't listen, but I'm sure they're the 16 control trials that I

discuss in my books, where I give the amount of decrease in illness.

Every one of these shows that Vitamin C has value, not that it doesn't

have value.

That's perhaps a minor misrepresentation. A couple of years ago, I got

two or three letters from people who sent me clippings from a magazine.

One of them said he had stopped taking his Vitamin C because of the

statement in this magazine. It was a quotation from the Professor of

Medicine at Yale University Medical School. I had mentioned, three or

four weeks ago, while speaking in Yale University Medical School, his

statement that you shouldn't take as much as even one gram of Vitamin C

per day because it will damage the liver. So I wrote to him and said

that I read the literature on Vitamin C to the extent that I can, and

there are a couple of thousand new papers published every year about

Vitamin C, but I missed the meal. Would you please send me the

references to the work done on the damage done to the liver. Well, he

was a gentleman, which you'd expect at Yale Medical School and often

when I write letters like that I don't get an answer from them. He wrote

back saying oh, that

was just a mistake. That was the end of that. So far as I know he didn't

write to the magazine and say that was a mistake, but he did say it to

me. And there are lots of mistakes of this sort about vitamins that

perhaps sometimes intentionally misrepresent the facts. For some perhaps

there is a reason an economic, financial reason, that there is so msuch

opposition in the medical establishment against improving your health by

taking vitamins. "

This first symposium which included laboratory and medical scientists

was one of the first with this mix of clinical and preclinical data. The

number attending was not very large but they made up in quality for the

lack of numbers. There I met Dr. Patrick Quillin, Vice President of

Nutrition, Cancer Treatment Centers of America. He was thinking about

organizing a conference to consider the connection between nutrition and

cancer. I thought it was an excelllent idea and encouraged him to do so.

The first symposium was held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, November 6 to 8, 1992.

The title of the meeting was Adjuvent Nutrition in Cancer Treatment.

Over 300 physicians and others attended. Participating were seven

Universities, more than 6 cancer institutes. The last half day of the

symposium was taken up by clinical studies including my report, and a

report from Prof Rudy Falk, University of Toronto Medical School. This

was the first meeting were both the academic physicians and orthomolecular

physicians met in an amicable and interesting exchange of information.

The meeting was co- sponsored by the Cancer Treatment Research

Foundation and the American College of Nutrition, and published as a

proceedings.

In my presentation at the Tulsa Conference I described how I became

involved in the treatment of patients with cancer. My preliminary data

indicated that the addition of vitamin C in mega doses improved the

outcome of treatment substantially. I described these findings to Linus

Pauling. He urged me to follow up carefully every patient I had seen and

offered to analyze the follow up data using the method he had

developed. In our two recent studies, Hoffer and Pauling3 concluded

that the addition of vitamin C improved the outcome of treatment for

cancer significantly and substantially. In the first study 134 patients

seen between August 1977 and March 1988 were followed until December 31,

1989. We concluded that orthomolecular treatment given to female related

cancers had improved life expectancy about 20 times compared to our non

random controls and 12 times for other cancers. In our second paper a

second cohort of 170 patients seen between April 1988 to December 31,

1989 was

followed to December 31, 1992. These results were about the same as

those we had published earlier. We concluded that while vitamin C alone

led to about 10 % excellent responders the addition of the other

nutrients increased this to about 40 %.

Orthomolecular treatment improves the quality of life. It also decreases

the side effects of radiation and chemotherapy. The program is

palatable. The only patients who could not follow it were those who were

getting chemotherapy and suffered severe nausea and vomiting or patients

who could not swallow because of lesions in their throat. Orthomolecular

therapy provides a step forward in the battle against cancer and must be

fully explored. There can be no logical reason today why most of the

research funds should go only toward the examination of more

chemotherapy and more ways of giving radiation. There must be a major

expansion into the use of orthomolecular therapy to sort out the

variables and to determine how to improve the therapeutic outcome of

treatment.

Hoffer A: Orthomolecular Medicine for Physicians. Keats Publising, New

Canaan, CT, 1989.

Pauling,L: Biostatistical analysis of mortality data for cohorts of

cancer patients. Proceedings National Academy Sciences, USA

86:3466-3488,1989.

Pauling, L and Herman, Z: Criteria for the validity of clinical trials

of treatments of cohorts of cancer patients based on the Hardin Jones

principle. Proceedings National Academy Science, USA 86:6835-6837,1989.

Anti Cancer Nutrition

A large number of special diets ranging from fasting (water only) to

juice fasts to low fat and sugar free diets are used. Every one of the

special diets have proponents who think they are very helpful, and

patients who have been helped by them but no one has ever conducted an

experiment to compare all the diets to determine which is the best.

Perhaps there will never be a " best " . Because of the individuality of

people it may turn out that each person will have to determine what is

their own best diet. In my book Hoffer " s Laws of Natural Nutrition

Quarry Press,P.O.Box 1061, Kingston, Ontario K7L 4Y5. Almost all the

diets used by complementary therapists are lower in animal proteins,

much more vegetarian, with emphasis on vegetables rich in bioflavonoids

and fruits. I advise my patients to obey three rules (1) To eliminate

all junk food i.e,. food containing any added simple sugars like table

sugar or glucose as in corn syrup. This simple rule, comprehensible even

to children, will

eliminate nearly 90% of the additives commonly added to processed foods.

(2) To reduce fat levels, I think that dairy products are the chief

villains. Nearly every study internationally has shown that countries

with lower fat intake have fewer cases of cancer, particulary breast

cancer. Milk is very rich in estrogens from the cow and in

phytoestrogens from the grass that they eat.(3) To eliminate all foods

they know they are allergic to. These rules allow the diet to be varied,

palatable and interesting.

Vitamin Supplements

No one should take any supplements until they have become familiar with

their properties and how to use them. It is advisable always to work

with a knowledgeable physician. But if they can not find any physician

or orthomolecular nutritionist they should go ahead on their own using

the information now readily available on nutrition and vitamin

supplements. They should advise their doctors what they are doing and

which supplements they are using. By listing the vitamins and dose

ranges I am not suggesting that every person need to take them all. This

is an individual matter based on discussions with their doctor. The

vitamin and mineral supplements are compatible with medication and with

the diet.

 

Vitamin C. The dose range is anywhere from 3 to 40 grams daily in three

divided doses. If the dose is too high it will not be absorbed by the

intestines, will stay in the bowel and act like a laxative causing loose

stools and gas. It is a good laxative. The best dose does not act like a

laxative. Forms of vitamin C include the pure ascorbic acid (hydrogen

ascorbate), and the mineral salts such as sodium ascorbate (slightly

salty in taste), calcium ascorbate (slightly bitter), and other salts

often found in combinations of the mineral ascorbates, In large doses it

is best used as the powder dissolved in water or one of the juices. Do

not use commercial grade vitamin C crystals of powders. Use CP grades as

is found in drug stores or health food stores. Contrary to false rumours

issued by some hostile critics of megadose vitamin use it does not cause

kidney stones, does not cause pernicious anemia, does not cause

sterility. A recent suggestion in a letter, to Nature, published in

England concluded that more than 500 milligrams of vitamin C daily could

cause DNA damage. This was based on one of a possible 20 markers that

could have been used which showed no damage and a 21st marker which is

seriously questioned. Some of the key scientists in this field

criticized these conclusions. My only comment is that if they were

correct why do my patients who take large doses of vitamin C live so

much longer.

 

Vitamin B-3. There are two forms. Niacin lowers cholesterol, elevates

high density lipoprotein cholesterol and reduces the ravages of heart

disease, but causes flushing when it is first taken. The flushing

reaction dissipates in time and in most cases is gone or very minor

within a matter of weeks. Niacinamide, the other form, has no effect on

blood fats (lipids) but is not a vasodilator. There have been 7

international conferences on the theme niacin and cancer. This vitamin

is an essential component of the enzyme systems that repair broken DNA

molecules. The dose ranges from 100 milligrams three times daily to 1000

milligrams three times daily. Several studies in Detroit have found that

the response rate of cancer around the head and neck was 10% on

radiation alone but increased to 80% when patients were given large

doses of niacinamide. Very rarely niacin will cause obstructive jaundice

which clears when the niacin is stopped. For details see my book

Orthomolecular Medicine for

Physicians.

 

Vitamin E (d alpha tocopherol succinate). This water soluble form has

the greated efficacy in controlling cancer cell growth in the test tube

and is the one I recommend should be used. The dose ranges from 400 to

1200 International Units daily. Vitamin E is the major fat soluble anti-

oxidant in the body and plays a role by decreasing the concentration of

free radicals which are thought to be involved in the creation of the

cancer. It also decreases the risk of heart disease, thus confirming

what was found over fifty years in Ontario by Drs. Wilfrid and Evan Shute.

 

The Carotenoids. Most people have heard of beta carotene but this is

only one of a large number of carotenoids which are present in colored

vegetables and fruits such as carrots, beets, tomatos and greens. The

evidence is very powerful that these mixed carotenoids as found in these

foods will decrease the incidence of cancer but there is a question

about the efficacy of the pure beta carotene. There is still a vigorous

debate about this. I prefer carrot juice to the beta carotene. Generally

it is better to have a large variety of these natural anti cancer

factors. Beta carotene is very safe. The only question is whether it is

the best form. Only a small portion is converted into vitamin A.

 

Folic acid. Several studies have found this important vitamin has anti

cancer properties, for cancer of the cervix and of the lung in lung

smokers. This does not mean it is safe to smoke. It does mean that

smokers should take it and immediately start their campaign to stop

smoking. Women should take ample amounts to prevent neural tube

disorders such as spina bifida. The US government plans to add it to

flour. Canada is still thinking about it. The dose range is from 1 to 30

milligrams daily. It can be taken only on prescription.

 

Coenzyme Q 10. Dr. Karl Folkers discovered this substance, also called

ubiquinone; toward the end of his long and distinguished career he

regretted that he had not called it a vitamin. It is an odd vitamin

since young people are able to make enough from the lower numbered

ubiquinones such as Q 6 or Q 8 whereas older people and anyone ill is

not able to make enough. It thus becomes a vitamin later in llife and

when onc becomes ill. A few clinical studies have shown that in large

doses it has anticancer properties especially for breast cancer. These

range from 300 milligrams to 600 milligrams daily.

 

Mineral supplements

 

Selenium. The presence or absense of this trace element has the clearest

relationship to the presence of cancer. People living on soils that are

rich in selenium have a lower incidence. I recommend between 200 to 1000

micrograms daily. One of my patients took 2000 with no side effects.

 

Calcium and magnesium. These are generally very useful to take to

maintain calcium levels in bones and blood. They have been found helpful

in cases of bowel cancer. Women should receive 1500 milligrams of

calcium daily from their food and supplements and half as much

magnesium. There are several forms of these minerals available. Usually

a person will absorb into their body anywhere between 25 and 50% of the

calcium.

 

Zinc and copper. There is a reciprocal connection between these two. If

blood zinc levels are too high the copper levels will be too low.

Because zinc can shrnik enlarged prostate glands and may be helpful in

the treatment of this cancer. I have been using it routinely. Also,

people in Victoria tend to be low in zinc levels because our water is

soft, and dissolves copper more easily from copper plumbing.

 

Other Substances Found in Plants.

 

A large number of these preparations are being used for the treatment of

cancer. They include bioflavonoids, preparations from soy bean, and from

mushrooms. Vaccines are also being used. Coley's vaccine originated over

100 years ago. I will not discuss these, nor other treatments such as

714-X, Ukrain, Iscador, Cartilage, Carnivora, Amygdalin (Laetril),

Esiac, and many herbs. These are described in the book by Diamond,

Cowden and Goldberg.

 

Most of the speakers at the 26th Annual International Conference on

Nutritional Medicine Today, Toronto, April 1997, discussed various

topics dealing with the principlea and pracice of orthomolecular

medicine. Dr. C.Simone spoke on " Breast Cancer: Nutritional and

Lifestyle Modification to Augment Oncology Care " . Dr. Somone is well

known for his work in researching complementary treatment of cancer.. He

is an Internist, Medical Oncologist, Immunologist and Radiation

Oncologist and has published several valuable books including Cancer and

Nutrition and A Ten Point Plan to Reduce Your Risk of Getting Cancer.

Optimum nutrition, avoiding toxic substances in food and water, and

other lifestyle changes will materially reduce the risk of developing

cancer.

 

Here is his ten point plan (1) Nutrition: calories slightly below

average to maintain a weight just below the average weight. Should be

high in fiber, rich in fish, fruits, and vegetables and with vitamin and

mineral suplements. Eliminate additives and salt. (2) Avoid tobacco. (3)

Avoid alcohol (one drink per week allowed). (4) Avoid radiation. Take

X-ray only when necessary and avoid excessive exposure to sun. (5) Keep

environment, air, water,and work place clean. (6) Avoid promiscuity,

hormones and any unnecessary drugs.(7). Learn early warning signs like a

lump in the breast. (8) Exercise and relax regularly. (9) Take a yearly

physical. (10) Read his book for a self test of risk factors and

symptoms that may indicate cancer or heart disease. See the report by

Esteve,J. et all. Diet and cancers of the larynx and hypopharynx: the

IARC multi-center study in southwestern Europe. In Cancer Causes and

Control 7:240-252,1996.

 

These ten points should be part of every treatment program as well. The

main difference is that in treatment the first point becomes even more

important and the doses of supplements are much greater. The sicker a

person is the more nutrients are needed in optimum doses to help the

bodies reparative mechanisms. Treatment must be started as soon as the

diagnosis is suspected and made, and should be concurrent with any other

treatment recommended by oncologists and cancer specialists. Eventually

all cancer specialists will be using these orthomolecular techniques.

Supplements must be maintained while chemotherapy or radiation are being

used. Studies have shown that these supplements enhance the toxic effect

of the treatment on the lesion and decrease the toxic effects on the

body. Patients do not suffer as much from the side effects and recover

much more quickly when the treatment series is completed. They enhance

the quality of life during and after treatment.

 

In Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where I conducted my research which helped

lead to orthomolecular oncology, Tyrell Dueck, age 13, was forced to

undergo chemotherapy for an osteogenic sarcoma of his leg and amputation

of that leg. Neither Tyrell nor his parents wanted him to undergo this

treatment and instead, having already had two sessions of chemotherapy,

Tyrell wanted to get alternative treatment from a clinic outside of

Canada. The problem was that Tyrell ass not an adult. If he were, there

would be no problem and no one could force him to receive treatment he

did not want. His pediatric oncologist testified that the cancer could

be spreading and that if chemotherapy did not start soon surgical

options would be limited. He added that he would accept Tyrells wishes

if he were certain that Tyrell had all the available information. Three

professionnals, one a psychiatrist, testified that Tyrell was competent

to make such a decision. The judge ruled that, even so, Tyrell had been

unduly

swayed by his parents and that he had not been given the necessary

information.

 

The keywords are " necessary information " so that all the legal

requirements for informed consent were met. I would be surprised if

Tyrell had not been informed what might happen to him with or without

standard treatment. The outlook for this lesion is dismal and even

amputation of the leg would not ensure that other limbs might not have

to be amputated later. I think Tyrell was informed about the possible

benefits and risks of alternative treatment as well. Most patients study

their options very carefully before they make these very serious

decisions. But I also am convinced that the pediatric oncologist and the

judge and the government department that ordered the treatment against

Tyrell's wishes were the most ill informed. Treatment with high doses

ascorbic acid either by mouth or intravenously or both carries no risk

and does provide substantial advantages over chemotherapy and surgery

used as the sole treatment. Between 1980 and 1995 four patients with

sarcoma followed my

treatment protocol (a combination of orthodox and orthomolecular

treatment). The first seen in Victoria, had a prostate sarcoma invading

his pelvic bones. The cancer clinic could not treat him and he was

declared untreatable. He responded to the regimen and died 9 years later

at age 80 clear of cancer. One is alive after ten years. One is still

alive after five years. The last one, an abdominal liposarcoma died in

his sixth year. Counting the first young patient I saw in 1962 who was

still well several years ago, five of six responded either to the

vitamin regimen alone or to the combination treatment.

 

I think there is a misunderstanding on both parties of this dispute.

There is no reason in the world why any oncologist should not allow

vitamin treatment in combination with chemotherapy. This would enhance

the therapeutic effect of the chemotherapy and decrease its toxicity. It

could possibly have saved this young boys leg and his life. He died soon

after returning home. On the other side, if the oncologist had been more

open Tyrell might have agreed to more chemotherapy if he were assured he

could also take the vitamins by mouth or by intravenous administration.

There were doctors in Saskatoon willing to use orthomolecular treatment.

More knowledge and more comon sense could have avoided this terrible

dilemma forced on Tyrell and to a lesser degree on the physicians who

advised Tyrell and his family. The family appealed the decision to the

superior court and enforced chemotherapy was put on hold. March 20. 1999

 

The final solution is that every one lost. Tyrell has metastases to his

lungs and was therefore no longer treatable by the cancer clinic. They

no longer objected to Tyrell receiving vitamin therapy. He did go to

Mexico. Tyrell also lost months in obtaining orthomolecular treatment

which may have destroyed his chance for recovery. The court lost because

the decision was repellant and will generate massive controversy.

December 26, 1999.

 

A.Hoffer PhD MD FRCP©

 

 

 

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