ReviewFrontiers in physiology2018
Potential Mechanisms of Action for Vitamin C in Cancer: Reviewing the Evidence.
Review in Frontiers in physiology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 92 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
92 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 186 citations in OpenAlex.
- 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
- Combined Molecular Hydrogen and Vitamin C Treatment in Irradiated Normal and Cancer Cell Models: An Exploratory In Vitro Study and Case Reports.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Review
- Association of serum vitamin D and serum vitamin C with the risk of melanoma among adults in the United States: a cross-sectional analysis of 2003-2006 and 2017-2018 NHANES data.Journal of clinical biochemistry and nutrition · 2026Article
- Evaluation of Organically Versus Synthetically Derived Multivitamin and Mineral Supplementation on Circulatory Concentration in Healthy Humans: A Single-Blinded Randomized Intervention Study.Current developments in nutrition · 2026Article
- Antioxidant N-Acetylcysteine Facilitates Breast Cancer Metas-Tasis via Immunosuppressive Reprogramming of Neutrophils.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- The triad of collagen, vitamin C, and vitamin E in aging: emerging roles in mood and psychological health, neurotrophic support, cognitive function, endurance, and sarcopenia.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- High-Dose Ascorbic Acid Combined With Dihydroartemisinin Inhibits Lung Adenocarcinoma Malignancy by Inducing Ferroptosis via SLC7A11/GPX4 Pathway.Journal of cellular and molecular medicine · 2025Article
- Dehydroascorbic Acid Induces Cell Death in Sarcoma Stem Cells Under bFGF-Mediated Stemness-Supporting Conditions.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Melatonin and Vitamins: A Promising Combination to Augment Conventional Anticancer Therapies.Nutrients · 2025Review
- Valproic Acid Enhances the Anticancer Effect of L-Ascorbic Acid by Upregulating Sodium-Dependent Vitamin C Transporter 2 in Colorectal Cancer.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Differential control of RNA demethylase activity and selectivity by cofactor ascorbate.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Long-Term Exposure to Nitrate and Trihalomethanes in Drinking Water and Gastric Cancer: A Multicase-Control Study in Spain (MCC-Spain).Environmental health perspectives · 2025Article
- The Use of Plants That Seal Blood Vessels in Preparations Applied Topically to the Skin: A Review.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Review
- The dual role of vitamin C in cancer: from antioxidant prevention to prooxidant therapeutic applications.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Review
- Deficiency of TET2-mediated KMT2D self-transcription confers a targetable vulnerability in hepatocellular carcinoma.PNAS nexus · 2024Article
- Vitamin C in the Management of Thyroid Cancer: A Highway to New Treatment?Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Scavenging of Alkylperoxyl Radicals by Addition to Ascorbate: An Alternative Mechanism to Electron Transfer.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Article
32 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
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Whether vitamin C (ascorbate) has a role to play as an anti-cancer agent has been debated for decades. Ascorbate has been used by cancer patients in an unregulated environment, either as a dietary supplement or in pharmacological doses administered by infusion, with numerous reports of clinical benefit, but in the absence of rigorous clinical trial data. The design of appropriate clinical trials has been hindered by a lack of understanding of the mechanism(s) of action that would inform the choice of effective dose, timing of administration and likely responsive cancer models. More recently, expanded understanding of the biological activities of ascorbate has led to a number of plausible hypotheses for mechanisms of anti-cancer activity. Prominent among these are the generation of significant quantities of hydrogen peroxide by the autoxidation of supra-physiological concentrations of ascorbate and stimulation of the 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase family of enzymes (2-OGDDs) that have a cofactor requirement for ascorbate. Hydrogen peroxide generation is postulated to generate oxidative stress that preferentially targets cancer cells. The 2-OGDDs include the hydroxylases that regulate the hypoxic response, a major driver of tumor survival, angiogenesis, stem cell phenotype and metastasis, and the epigenetic histone and DNA demethylases. The latter are of particular interest, with recent studies suggesting a promising role for ascorbate in the regulation of the ten-eleven translocase (TET) DNA demethylases in hematological cancers. Support for these proposed mechanisms has come from many
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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.