ReviewOxidative medicine and cellular longevity2020
Vitamin C versus Cancer: Ascorbic Acid Radical and Impairment of Mitochondrial Respiration?
Review in Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Beyond redox: vitamin C in signaling, epigenetic regulation and protein modification-relevance to cancer therapy.Clinical epigenetics · 2026Review
- Cytochrome bBiomedicine & pharmacotherapy = Biomedecine & pharmacotherapie · 2026Article
- Regulation by Ascorbic Acid and HOO• Radicals of Extracellular DNA Network Formation and Internalization Activity of Mononuclear Cells.Sovremennye tekhnologii v meditsine · 2026Article
- Harnessing Vitamin C: Unveiling Its Potential in Cancer Prevention and Treatment.Current medicinal chemistry · 2026Review
- Sex-dependent adaptations in heart mitochondria from transgenic mice overexpressing cytochrome bMitochondrion · 2025Article
- Vitamin C in the Management of Thyroid Cancer: A Highway to New Treatment?Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Ascorbic Acid Enhances the Inhibitory Effect of Theasaponins againstInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Connection between nutrition and oncology in dogs and cats: perspectives, evidence, and implications-a comprehensive review.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2024Review
- Article
- Genetically predicted vitamin C levels significantly affect patient survival and immunotypes in multiple cancer types.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Article
- Antioxidative and Anti-Inflammatory Activity of Ascorbic Acid.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Ascorbate as a Bioactive Compound in Cancer Therapy: The Old Classic Strikes Back.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Article
- Review
- Insufficient Vitamin C Levels among Adults in the United States: Results from the NHANES Surveys, 2003-2006.Nutrients · 2021Article
- Vitamin C Cytotoxicity and Its Effects in Redox Homeostasis and Energetic Metabolism in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Cell Lines.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Article
- Selective Targeting of Cancerous Mitochondria and Suppression of Tumor Growth Using Redox-Active Treatment Adjuvant.Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Vitamin C as a cancer therapy has a controversial history. Much of the controversy arises from the lack of predictive biomarkers for stratification of patients, as well as a clear understanding of the mechanism of action and its multiple targets underlying the anticancer effect. Our review expands the analysis of cancer vulnerabilities for high-dose vitamin C, based on several facts, illustrating the cytotoxic potential of the ascorbyl free radical (AFR) via impairment of mitochondrial respiration and the mechanisms of its elimination in mammals by the membrane-bound NADH:cytochrome b5 oxidoreductase 3 (Cyb5R3). This enzyme catalyzes rapid conversion of AFR to ascorbate, as well as reduction of other redox-active compounds, using NADH as an electron donor. We propose that vitamin C can function in "protective mode" or "destructive mode" affecting cellular homeostasis, depending on the intracellular "steady-state" concentration of AFR and differential expression/activity of Cyb5R3 in cancerous and normal cells. Thus, a specific anticancer effect can be achieved at high doses of vitamin C therapy. The review is intended for a wide audience of readers-from students to specialists in the field.
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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.