Trial reportPloS one2015
High-dose intravenous vitamin C combined with cytotoxic chemotherapy in patients with advanced cancer: a phase I-II clinical trial.
Trial report in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 3 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 67 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Phase I - II Clinical Trial of Combination Conventional Cytotoxic Chemotherapy and Intravenous Vitamin C in Patients With Advanced Cancer or Hematologic Malignancy for Whom Cytotoxic Chemotherapy Alone is Only Marginally Effective
Outcomes of Metabolic Resuscitation Using Ascorbic Acid, Thiamine, and Glucocorticoids in the Early Treatment of Sepsis.
The Efficacy of Perioperative Parenteral Ascorbic Acid in Reducing Oxidative Stress Among Patients Undergoing Free Flap Reconstructive Surgery: A Prospective Multicenter Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial
Who cites it
67 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 115 citations in OpenAlex.
- Clinical benefits and risks of high-dose intravenous vitamin C: a systematic review.Journal of medicine and life · 2026Pooled it
- Association of Oral or Intravenous Vitamin C Supplementation with Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Nutrients · 2023Pooled it
- Effect of vitamins C and E on cancer survival; a systematic review.Daru : journal of Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences · 2022Pooled it
- The Effect of Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid) in the Treatment of Patients with Cancer: A Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2019Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Effect of intravenous vitamin C administration on chemotherapy-induced adverse events in patients with nasopharyngeal cancer.PloS one · 2026Trial
- Pharmacokinetic Evaluation of Intravenous Vitamin C: A Classic Pharmacokinetic Study.Clinical pharmacokinetics · 2022Trial
- Exploiting vitamin C as a prooxidant to activate ROS-responsive prodrugs for potent and selective tumor killing.Redox biology · 2026Article
- The Redox Paradox of Natural Supplements in Cancer: A Narrative Review to Guide Clinical Practice.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Low-Dose Vitamin C-Based Electroporation of Solid Tumors: A New Area in Non-Cytotoxic Electrochemotherapy.Biomedicines · 2026Article
- High-dose vitamin C: A promising anti-tumor agent, insight from mechanisms, clinical research, and challenges.Genes & diseases · 2026Review
- Review
- Beyond Conventional Treatments: The Role of Complementary Therapies in Head and Neck Cancer.Cancers · 2025Review
- High-dose vitamin C as a metabolic treatment of cancer: a new dimension in the era of adjuvant and intensive therapy.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2025Review
- Suppression of Paclitaxel-Induced Neuropathy and Ovarian Tumor Growth by Mn Porphyrin, MnTnBuOE-2-PyPOxidative medicine and cellular longevity · 2025Article
- Pharmacological Ascorbate Induces Transient Hypoxia Sensitizing Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma to a Hypoxia Activated Prodrug.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- The Involvement of Ascorbic Acid in Cancer Treatment.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Micronutrient Status and Breast Cancer: A Narrative Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Combination of High-Dose Parenteral Ascorbate (Vitamin C) and Alpha-Lipoic Acid Failed to Enhance Tumor-Inhibitory Effect But Increased Toxicity in Preclinical Cancer Models.Clinical Medicine Insights. Oncology · 2024Article
- Vitamin C intake and colorectal cancer survival according to KRAS and BRAF mutation: a prospective study in two US cohorts.British journal of cancer · 2023Article
7 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundBiological and some clinical evidence suggest that high-dose intravenous vitamin C (IVC) could increase the effectiveness of cancer chemotherapy. IVC is widely used by integrative and complementary cancer therapists, but rigorous data are lacking as to its safety and which cancers and chemotherapy regimens would be the most promising to investigate in detail. METHODS AND
findingsWe carried out a phase I-II safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetic and efficacy trial of IVC combined with chemotherapy in patients whose treating oncologist judged that standard-of-care or off-label chemotherapy offered less than a 33% likelihood of a meaningful response. We documented adverse events and toxicity associated with IVC infusions, determined pre- and post-chemotherapy vitamin C and oxalic acid pharmacokinetic profiles, and monitored objective clinical responses, mood and quality of life. Fourteen patients were enrolled. IVC was safe and generally well tolerated, although some patients experienced transient adverse events during or after IVC infusions. The pre- and post-chemotherapy pharmacokinetic profiles suggested that tissue uptake of vitamin C increases after chemotherapy, with no increase in urinary oxalic acid excretion. Three patients with different types of cancer experienced unexpected transient stable disease, increased energy and functional improvement.
conclusionsDespite IVC's biological and clinical plausibility, career cancer investigators currently ignore it while integrative cancer therapists use it widely but without reporting the kind of clinical data that is normally gathered in cancer drug development. The present study neither proves nor disproves IVC's value in cancer therapy, but it provides practical information, and indicates a feasible way to evaluate this plausible but unproven therapy in an academic environment that is currently uninterested in it. If carried out in sufficient numbers, simple studies like this one could identify specific clusters of cancer type, chemotherapy regimen and IVC in which exceptional responses occur frequently enough to justify appropriately focused clinical trials.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT01050621.
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Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.