Vitamin C for Canine Cancer Patients? Part 2
ByWell, it’s been 2 days since the lead-in entry on Vitamin C….which may (or may not) be a long time to wait 
Anyway, here you go:
As I had indicated, it turns out that if one were to take vitamin C, at huge doses by mouth, the blood levels you get are puny. When you, or your dog, takes a pill, some gets absorbed into the body, but some passes out in the waste.
People who took 18 grams of the stuff (which equals gagging down 9-18 of those “horse pill” tablets) per day, only ended up with 220 micromol/L in their blood. That means a huge amount Vitamin C ends up literally going down the toilet.
Those studies showing that cancer cells die when exposed to vitamin C needed more than 1,000 micromol/L. Since 220 is much less than 1000, the cancer cells were not dying.
This is probably why the two clinical trials where people had to down 10 grams of vitamin C daily showed no benefit in surviving their cancers.
So the message seems clear…don’t bother with strait oral vitamin C (ascorbic acid) when you are trying to help your dog kill cancer cells. In my opinion, bases on the evidence, you can’t get the levels you want for cancer cell death.
But there are other ways to get the stuff in the body. What about injections?? Does that help?
Well, I could not find solid reports on the effects of intravenous vitamin C given to canine cancer patients. Recall I want good, solid, science-based information…however, I did find some in the human literature.
A paper came out in 2006 that showed 3 human patients with tumors that would have been expected to have led to their demise opted for IV vitamin C at whopping doses. Read the abstract here.
One had a form of lymphoma (lymphosarcoma), one a kidney tumor, and other was transitional cell cancer of the bladder. All had signs of either local spread (into the surrounding areas) or distant spread (metastasis). Bad, bad stuff.
The amazing thing is that in each of these three, the tumors went away. Gone. Nada. Zippo. And that, my friends, is pretty astounding. Granted, the lady with the kidney tumor (a chronic smoker) developed lung cancer 4 years later…but the information is pretty impressive regardless.
Does this mean everyone with a dog should go out and schedule IV vitamin C injections for their dogs? No. Especially not dogs with urinary stones like calcium oxalates, which likely can be worsened or theoretically even caused by the injections.
But, it does mean that in certain circumstances, it should be considered. Vitamin C IV injections appear fairly safe overall, and people are starting to pay attention to Vitamin C IV injections in cancer therapy…check it out. For the vets out there, the protocols are here too.
Note that it is, at this point, probably unwise to give these doses of IV vitamin C in conjunction with chemotherapy until the issue of whether it helps or hinders chemo is clarified. I would also avoid IV vit C at these doses if your dog is receiving radiation therapy.
Best to all,
Dr Dressler
About the Author
Dr. Demian Dressler, DVM is known as the "dog cancer vet" and is author of Dog Cancer Survival Guide: Beyond Surgery, Chemotherapy & Radiation. Visit his blog and sign up free to get the latest information about canine cancer. Go to http://DogCancerBlog.com.
10 Comments
December 4th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
where can I get IV vit C shots for my dog in Los Angeles? This sounds so wonderful; it gives me hope. My dog has a cancerous bone tumor in one of her femurs. It has just been diagnosed after she developed a limp. Thank you for any advice you can give. Richard Grain.
December 5th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Talk to your vet. It is easy to get, cheap, and simple to do! Print out the blog page and print out the papers linked to so you can educate if needed. Also please read as much of this blog as you can (previous entries)
D
April 14th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
I was looking for info for my mother’s dog but thought I would post a great sight for getting high doses of vitamin c in a new oral method. http://livonlab.com I am a cancer patient and I use this stuff daily and I feel like a new person.
May 2nd, 2009 at 7:08 am
I have spoken to my local vet, she had never heard of it. I went to the only specialists in town, they aren’t interested in trying and said it might damage my dog’s liver? Recommendations?
May 23rd, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Dear Dr. Dressler!
Almost 3 month ago my dog Toto, a 12-year-old toy poodle, was diagnosed with an aggressive oral melanoma with an extremely poor prognosis. His lymph nodes in the neck on the side of a tumor were noticeable and x-rays of the lungs did not give a clear answer. Toto went through immediate surgery and vaccination with a new “break through” DNA based vaccine against cancer-associated protein tyrosinase that claimed to extend dogs life from 6 month to a year. Browsing the web for unconventional cancer treatments I came across your website with a report of high dose vitamin C IV injections curing three patients. Thinking that it might be difficult to perform I concentrated on the pills, lots of pills, day and night. Three weeks later just overnight his lymph nodes in the neck enlarged to the size of my fist! I understood that nothing was working. There was no time to loose and to my luck the veterinarian had vit C injectable. We started with 1g/4ml injections (Toto is 17 lb) just under the skin because I tried to avoid IV. After the first injection the tumor loosened up and after the third (every day) it shrunk back to the size it was three weeks ago (1.5cm). WOW! Since then Toto was getting under skin injections, 1g, every day. My pharmacy gave me twice more concentrated vit C so the volume was reduced to 2ml. The injections were painful but other than that no side effects!!! Unfortunately after a month of injections his lymph nodes started to enlarge again and I did not have any choice but to accept IV injections, the dose was doubled (2g, 4ml plus veterinarian added 10ml of 0.45 saline solution) and IV was given every other day or so. To my surprise Toto takes IV injections extremely well: he is not shivering any more at the vets office, very joyful, playful, has good appetite. No side effects!!! Just yesterday I found out that one doctor at Thomas Jefferson Hospital (Philadelphia) was organizing clinical trials to cure lymphoma with high dose of vit C injections!!! That gave me more hope!
June 5th, 2009 at 5:18 am
Dear Dr. Dressler,
Further to my comment on depression/cancer in dogs, i am curious if ester c or c ester, as i believe it is known in your country, may be of help to dogs with cancer. As vitamin c is water soluble and ester c is non acidic and fat soluble i believe ester c can penetrate the thin membrane encasing a cell thus concentrating in the cell plasma Whether this would be of value to dogs with cancer i don’t know. However on a slightly different subject i know large dose have been proven to affect a disappearance of symptoms of hip dysplasia. I have also read that alpha lipoic acid is 400 times sronger as an anti-oxidant than vits c and e, and raises the levels of these vits in the body, in humans. I don’t know if you can give alpha lipoic acid to dogs and if so would it offer any help to dogs with cancer.Would value any info you may have on this.Julie (England)
July 13th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Hi Dr. Dressler
Interesting read. We as humans know the benefits of vitamin C. So what does one do? Should the regular vet already know the benefits of vitamin C, and have the education on the dosage and frequency or is this something that we can/need to get from you? Is the dosage in regards to pounds of weight of the dog? For example, our Taz is pretty close to 100 pounds and 11 years of age.
Thanks
July 30th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Do you think Vit C injections should cost $400/per treatment? It kills me that I can’t afford them, KILLS ME, can anyone help? I am trying some chinese meds now, and they just don’t seem to be working…
August 8th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
Hi Lager’s Mom. I ran across this clip: http://www.lanouvelleimage.com/nouv/video.html
If you notice at mark 3:12 of the video clip, the lady is given intravenous vitamin c for cosmetic purposes (skin lightening). Perhaps you could email the derm about it. It’s probably gonna be 1/10 the price here in US. They look reputable and certified in their country.
Best of health!
August 18th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
http://lib.vet.chula.ac.th/Data_files/ebook/FAVA2008/paperfile/PD024.pdf
I came across this when looking up info regarding MCTs and Vit C … something to keep in mind if you are persuing this treatment!
Mich