Pain-Less Cancer Therapies For
Lung,
Breast, Prostate, Uterine, and Rare Cancers.
Reagan Houston, MS, PE.
6/22/2009...
Vitamins
Can Kill Cancer, book by R.
Houston
Introduction
In 1969 The National Cancer Institute1 found that vitamin C killed
cancer cells without harming normal cells. Dr. Abram Hoffer, 2
M.D., Ph.D., developed this laboratory test into a clinically demonstrated
procedure for using vitamin C and other standard supplements to help patients with
many types of cancer live longer and
with less pain. This web site is based on improving regular therapies by
strengthening our bodies by adding vitamins and over-the-counter supplements.
The mainline therapies for cancer: surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and
hormones, work quite well and we should continue them. However, they
weaken the body. Many clinical tests show that strengthening the body can
greatly improve the results of using these mainline therapies. Vitamins
and supplements have helped many types of advanced cancer patients live much
longer than those patients not strengthening their bodies.
Linus
Pauling2 estimated that for every 8 patients who die of cancer, 7
could be saved by enough vitamins if started early. Irwin Stone3
said that Ōthe cancer problem has been solved, and all that is needed now is
the routine large-scale tests to verify this conclusion.Ķ HofferÕs extensive demonstrations, confirmed by
others, shows that vitamin therapy can be used now and large-scale tests are
not needed.
The author is a chemical engineer, not a physician. He was diagnosed with
early but aggressive prostate cancer. After an initial PSA of 8.1 and a
Gleason of 6, he used vitamins and triple hormones for about 1 year and then
Proscar plus vitamins for the next 11 years. His cancer is nicely in
remission with an average of PSA of 0.6. His latest PSA is 0.34. Normal
PSA is 0 to 4.0. He has never had chemotherapy, radiation, surgery,
or pain. This is written in love to help others who have cancer. He
has no financial interest in any product or service mentioned here except book
sales. This memo may be distributed for noncommercial use, in part or in
full, in whatever manner the reader wishes without further permission. Please
advise author of such use. Reagan Houston, 600 Carolina Village Rd #165,
Hendersonville, NC 28792, phone and fax 828-692-3722. Send
comments to h@CancerTherapies.org.
This
web site is provided for information only and not as medical advice or
instruction. No action should be taken based solely on this web site;
instead, readers who fail to consult appropriate health authorities assume the
risk of all injuries or harm.
Chemotherapy
and radiation are good, standard cancer therapies but even with these,
one-third of cancer patients die in five years.4 Can we improve these therapies? Dr. Abram
Hoffer,2 a physician who
had earned his Ph.D. in vitamins and is the author of Vitamin C and Cancer, chose diet and vitamins to help patients live longer
and to combat the weakening caused by regular therapies. One of HofferÕs early
patients with pancreatic cancer had failed surgery because the tumor at the
head of her pancreas was inoperable. However a bypass was installed. Her doctor
offered no hope. He said she would be dead in three months. But she had hope.
She knew that Norman Cousins (Anatomy of an Illness) had recovered after his doctors had given up.
Cousins had used 15,000 mg/day of vitamin C. Hoffer gave her vitamin C at
35,000 mg/day plus other supplements. Seven months later a CT scan showed no
sign of cancer. Five years later, she decreased her daily dose of vitamin C.
Twenty years after her terrible prognosis, she died at age 79. Even pancreatic
cancer has been controlled! The American Cancer Society4 reports that 96% of pancreatic cancer patients die
within five years.
Hoffer's Multivitamins.
Beginning
in 1978, Hoffer5,6started
a 15-year test on 134 advanced cancer patients. His approach was to counter the
weakening caused by cancer, surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy by
strengthening the body and the immune system. He offered vitamins, Table 1, and
diet (low meat, low sugar, high fruits and vegetables). In his test group with
patients having many types of advanced cancers, those who refused vitamins
lived a median of 2.6 months. Those who accepted vitamins lived 45
months or 17 times longer.
|
Table 1. Dr. Hoffer's Regimens |
||
|
|
Early |
Later6 |
|
Vitamin C mg |
12,000 |
12,000 |
|
range |
3,000 to 40,000 |
3,000 to 40,000 |
|
*Vitamin A, IU |
10-50,000 |
|
|
*Beta carotene |
30K-75K |
30,000 IU |
|
Vitamin B complex |
B-50 to B-100 |
1 or 2 of B-100 |
|
Vitamin D-3 |
5,000 IU |
To 19,000 |
|
Vitamin E, IU |
300 |
|
|
Vitamin E succinate |
|
800 IU. |
|
Selenium |
600 mcg |
400 to 600 |
|
Zinc as citrate |
60 mg |
60 mg |
|
Coenzyme Q10 |
|
300 IU |
|
Curcumin |
|
300 mg |
|
*Bioperin |
|
15 mg |
|
* Optional |
|
|
Use
surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy in moderation. Then add pills each
day in divided doses with meals. The vitamin C can be the regular ascorbic
acid, sodium ascorbate or a mixture. Calcium and magnesium were occasionally
included by Hoffer.
Hoffer6 has improved his
average regimen by adding vitamin D3 at 4,000 to 6,000 IU, Coenzyme Q10 at 300
mg and a combination of curcumin 3,000 mg with bioperin 15 mg. As a major
change,7 he recommends that patients receive 100,000 mg of sodium
ascorbate by IV daily. He says, ŌIn many cases this kind of very safe
chemotherapy... I think would bring most cancers under control pretty quickly.Ķ
To all of his cancer patients, Hoffer offered the vitamin regimen, diet, and
hope based on the results with earlier patients. Those who accepted vitamins
thus had the advantages of vitamins, diet and hope compared to those who
rejected vitamins. Self-selection is not ideal for statistical purposes, but is
typical of real life. Patients who chose vitamins demonstrated hope and hope
helps healing.
What Types Of Cancer?
Hoffer has treated over thirty types of cancers with
impressive results, Table 2. Most of his patients had advanced cancers that
could not be helped by additional surgery, radiation or chemotherapy. For
example, all 32 of the breast cancer patients had surgery, radiation and/or
chemotherapy. The median life of these very sick patients who chose to take
vitamins was 70 months while those without vitamins had a median life of only
3.7 months.
|
Table 2.
Median Survival of Hoffer's Patients with Various Types of Cancer, Months |
||
|
Type of |
With |
Without |
|
Cancer |
Vitamins |
Vitamins |
|
Breast |
70 |
3.7 |
|
Uterus |
99 |
4.0 |
|
Ovary |
16 |
3.6 |
|
Lung |
17 |
2.0 |
|
Pancreas |
40 |
2.4 |
|
All types |
45 |
2.6 |
High-dose
vitamin C appears to act as an antioxidant in most of the body but as a
cancer-killing oxidant within cancer cells. Hoffer's vitamin therapy Ōhas
given [his patients] more energy,
has improved depression and anxiety, has created a sense of well being, has eased pain and has often eliminated pain
entirely.Ķ2
As
reported by Hoffer, Pauling said ŌThe cancer death rate could be reduced by
25% of its present value...if a reasonable multivitamin regimen were to be
followed regularly by every person.Ķ
Cameron's Vitamin C Regimen
Instead of a handful of common vitamins, Dr. Ewan Cameron, MB, ChB,8 Senior Consultant Surgeon in
Scotland, started his patients on vitamin C only. He administered vitamin
C in the form of sodium ascorbate and mostly 10,000 mg/day either orally or
intravenously, IV, for two weeks followed by oral vitamin C continuously. His
vitamin-taking patients lived four times longer than similar patients at the
same hospital who were not given vitamins. Cameron joined with Dr. Linus
Pauling, Ph.D. a double Nobel Laureate, to publish the results in Cancer and
Vitamin C in 1993.
Cameron described his first very advanced cancer
patients. "They responded dramatically indeed, being converted from a
hopeless, terminal 'dying' situation into a hopeful 'recovering' situation." After 8 years and 500 terminal patients
with many types of cancer, Cameron concluded that vitamin C is not a miraculous
cure but a major step forward.
Cameron
and a few doctors report "ascorbic acid" when they mean sodium
ascorbate. Ascorbic acid is too acid for intravenous injection. Cameron's
patients took vitamin C as sodium ascorbate solution, Table 3. Intravenous
sodium ascorbate can be made as Cathcart9
indicated.
|
Table 3. Sodium Ascorbate
Solution |
|
|
Ascorbic acid |
167
grams |
|
Sodium
bicarbonate |
80
grams |
|
(baking soda) |
|
|
Water and then juice to |
1000 ml |
Fifteen
ml taken four times a day preferably with meals provides 10,000 mg/day of
ascorbate. The refrigerated solution has a shelf life of about one month. The
water solution has almost no taste. Add water first and then juice to minimize
foaming.
Example-Prostate Cancer
Cameron
reported many specific cases in considerable detail. Case VÕ was for a retired
navy admiral with widespread prostatic cancer, diagnosed in January 1971 and
confirmed by a biopsy. He refused hormone therapy as possibly feminizing, and
started vitamin C at 8,000 mg/day. After 14 months, the cancer was somewhat
smaller and the dose reduced to 1,000 mg/day. After 2 years, the cancer was
again growing and he increased the dose to 10,000 mg/day. In 1978 surgery was
required to remove the bladder-neck obstruction caused by the cancerous
prostate gland. At this time a bone scan showed metastases to the pelvic bone.
He increased his vitamin C to 12,000 and then 20,000 mg/day, added high doses
of vitamin A and a vegetarian diet with good effect. He suffered a stroke in
1979 but recovered nearly completely. At age 78 and 8 years after diagnosis, he
is active and apparently free cancer symptoms. His unorthodox and unadvisable
treatment, according to Cameron, shows the effect of variable amounts of
vitamin C on changing cancer growth.
Other Regimens
Many other doctors have successively used vitamin C as cancer therapy and
published their results. Irwin Stone, D.Sc.,10
author of The Healing Factor: Vitamin C against Disease; Robert Cathcart, MD11 a physician in Los Altos, California; Fukumi
Morishige, MD12 in
Fukuoka, Japan and Hugh Riordan, MD13
in Wichita, Kansas, successfully used vitamin C in the form of intravenous
sodium ascorbate. Hoffer was able to successfully use oral vitamin C by
including vitamin E and other vitamins.
Drs. Edward Creagan,14 and
Charles Moertel,15
physicians at Mayo Clinic, used ascorbic acid at 10,000 mg/day without success.
Creagan's randomized test used patients whose immune system had been decimated
by prior chemotherapy. Moertel administered vitamin C for an average of only
2.5 months although the test lasted over 14 months. Also, they did not administer
IV sodium ascorbate or other vitamins. Dr. Mary L. Lesperance16 followed most of HofferÕs
Average Regimen but omitted vitamin E and E succinate. She also chose control
patients who were less sick than the test patients. Her test patients did not
live longer than the controls. Importantly, none of these three trials used
CameronÕs or HofferÕs regimens. The regimens of Creagan, Moertel, and
Lesperance showed that some regimens do not work. They do not show that all regimens for vitamin C do not work.
Immune
System Strength
With
a strong immune system, IS, and strong white blood cells, the IS can fight
infections, bacteria, viruses, toxins, poisons, dead cells and other problems.
The white blood cells are weak if the vitamin C level in the blood (called plasma
ascorbate level) is low. Doctors routinely measure white blood cell count but
rarely plasma ascorbate or white blood cell strength.
Ask
your doctor to measure your plasma ascorbate as an indication of your IS
strength. If that doesnÕt work, you can measure it yourself. Suitable urine
dipsticks are available from The Bright Spot.17,18 If the dark blue
spot shows little or no change, your blood ascorbate indicates scurvy or near
scurvy. Light blue-green is normal and light yellow indicates a high plasma
ascorbate and strong white blood cells. Cancer patients recover far better with
a high plasma ascorbate (Personal communication from Dr. J. A. Jackson at the
Bright Spot) Chemotherapy, radiation and cancer all lower the plasma ascorbate
and may cause scurvy.
Scurvy?
DidnÕt scurvy disappear when
sailors started eating citrus fruit? No! In the last few years, several groups19,20
have had their plasma ascorbate measured. At 3 different hospitals, out
patients tested with 5, 6, and 6.3% scurvy. Probably none of them knew they had
scurvy since symptoms are so common and variable. At a hospital,19
19% of inpatients had scurvy, as did 30% of cancer patients in a hospice.21
With low plasma ascorbate our health is weakened. If your oncologists says to
stay away from crowds to avoid catching something, he is saying what he would
say if you had scurvy.
While we are fighting cancer, we should fight poor health simultaneously. Vitamin C can be a big part of cancer therapy and good health.
Vitamin C Is Safe
Many
people have taken 30,000 mg/day for years. Several doctors11,13 have given 200,000 mg/day
by IV. Some claim that vitamin C ŌmightĶ cause kidney stones although doctors
who give large doses of vitamin C rarely if ever see stones in these patients.
Ascorbic acid can make the urine acidic to dissolve possible stones.
Excessive vitamin C can cause diarrhea. People with cancer can frequently take
30,000 mg/day while well people have a typical limit of 3,000 to 10,000 mg/day.
If people on therapeutic doses of vitamin C develop diarrhea, the dose should
be reduced. Actually, diarrhea is a useful blessing because it provides a
simple measure of the proper dosage for each individual.11 HofferÕs
patients took from 3,000 to 40,000 mg/day. This illustrates the wide range of
dosages for individual cancer control. Humans cannot make the vitamin C they
need3 although most animals can. A 150-pound goat can make 13,000
mg/day- -a reasonable dose for people with cancer. Hoffer and Cameron both
advised their patients to continue a high dose of vitamin C indefinitely. Table
4 includes some of the precautions, side effects, and alternatives listed by
Riordan.13 However, Cameron and Hoffer did not report that they
followed the precautions in step 5.
|
Table 4. Precautions with High-Dose Vitamin C |
|
1. Build up the dose by about 1,000 or 2,000 mg/day to minimize
diarrhea and other problems. |
|
2. If necessary, decrease the dose slowly to allow the body to adjust. |
|
3. Vitamin C -- especially ascorbic acid -- may cause gas, upset
stomach or skin itch. If this problem occurs, consider using sodium ascorbate
or calcium ascorbate. |
|
4. Excess sodium intake from sodium ascorbate is possible. Consider
using calcium ascorbate or ascorbic acid. |
|
5. Some people have a rare immune deficiency called
glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. These people may not be able to take large
doses of vitamin C without getting acute anemia. |
|
6. For their own safety people should work with a doctor knowledgeable
about vitamins. All people may not be able to use high doses of vitamin C. |
As
reported in 1969, Dr. L Benade1
et al at the National Cancer Institute found that, in cultures, vitamin C
selectively destroyed cancer cells by generating excess intracellular H2O2. When vitamin C acts as an antioxidant and neutralizes
free radicals, it produces dehydroascorbate, DHA, an oxidant. The DHA is then
converted to ascorbate and hydrogen peroxide, H2O2,
by an oxidation/reduction process. Cancer cells are less able than normal cells
to neutralize H2O2 because they are deficient in
an enzyme called catalase. Dr. D.B Agus22
et al reported that cancer cells have extra glucose channels that rapidly bring
in glucose and excess DHA. Cancer cells are defective in that they cannot fully
distinguish between glucose and DHA. Normal cells need and take in DHA, but
they can control the amount taken in. This may explain why vitamin C is safe in
large doses for normal cells but toxic to cancer cells. The good results of
Cameron and Hoffer with humans confirm the National Cancer Institute lab tests.
Boik23 presents
another view of how vitamins might kill cancer. He lists seven traits that
distinguish cancer, Table 5, and vitamins that are or may be therapeutic for
each step. He describes how various vitamins combat each of these traits. He
does not give any test results.
HofferÕs vitamins fight each of the traits with at least four vitamins and
minerals. Vitamin C combats 6 of the 7 traits. Cancer mutates as it tries to
survive but vitamins can continue to combat each trait. Based on the long-term
experiences of Hoffer and Cameron, cancer mutation may not be a problem with
vitamin C. BoikÕs vitamins appear to be better suited to early or less
aggressive cancers. Hoffer and Cameron had very advanced cancer patients.
|
Table 5.
Seven Traits of Cancer And Their Therapeutic Vitamins |
|
|
|
1. Defective DNA or bad genes, |
|
Vitamins A, C, D, E and selenium |
|
2. Abnormal growth factors within the cells, |
|
Vitamins
A, C, D, E calcium and selenium |
|
3. Abnormal growth factors outside the cells, |
|
Vitamins A, B6, B12, C, D, E and selenium |
|
4. Excess growth despite surrounding cells and tissue, |
|
Vitamins A, C, D, E and selenium |
|
5. Abnormal blood-vessel growth, angiogenesis, |
|
Vitamins A, C, D, E and selenium |
|
6. Spread of cancer to new locations and |
|
Vitamins A, B12, C, D, E and selenium |
|
7. Ability to hide from the immune system. |
|
Vitamins A, E, zinc and selenium. |
Hickey and Roberts24 in
their excellent book Ascorbate, The Science of Vitamin C, 2004, carefully explain the basic science and delve deeply
into the controversy of vitamin requirements and therapy results. They list 6
references that attempt to explain the mechanism by which vitamin C controls
cancer. The important point is that vitamin C does combat cancer with
excellent success.
Vitamins without Radiation and Chemotherapy
Can
vitamins lengthen the lives of patients who do not receive radiation or
chemotherapy? Surgery for operable cancer is usually advisable to remove all or
almost all of the cancer. The body than has less cancer to fight. Radiation
aims to kill cancer locally while chemotherapy works throughout the body. Both
therapies are poisons that kill healthy cells. An unfortunate disadvantage for
standard therapies is that they provide only surgery, radiation, chemotherapy,
and occasionally hormones as tools to fight cancer. When these cease to control
the cancer, the oncologist can only give up or continue radiation and
chemotherapy hoping to give slight hope to the patient. This is often false
hope.15 If given beyond the therapeutic dosage; radiation and
chemotherapy may even shorten the life of the patient while decreasing his
quality of life. Excess chemotherapy may be harmful to the patient but a
placebo for the doctor. However, radiation is often helpful for pain control,
even though not helpful for treating the cancer.
All of Cameron's early 100 patients had had surgery and radiation as
appropriate. Chemotherapy was generally not offered in Scotland at the
time. The use of vitamin C without surgery or radiation was thus
untested. Almost all of Hoffer's early patients had prior surgery,
radiation, and/or chemotherapy as prescribed by their oncologists. Some
patients continued these therapies. Of HofferÕs initial test group of 134
patients, Table 6 describes the results of patients who avoided radiation and
chemotherapy although many had surgery.
|
Table
6. Median Life of Patients Who Avoided Radiation and Chemotherapy, months |
||
|
Therapy |
With |
Without |
|
|
Vitamins |
Vitamins |
|
No surgery |
16 |
1.6 |
|
With surgery |
68 |
8 |
|
No. of patients |
43 |
13 |
These results are from a very small group and may not be typical.
Vitamins appear to be better than nothing but this is only indicated.
In 1973 Cameron reported on an experimental but successful clinical test of
vitamin C for 50 cancer patients. However, the medical community requires that
new cancer therapies pass large, randomized and preferably double blind tests.
Is this reasonable? Surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy were each accepted in
desperation without randomized tests against each other. Neither radiation nor
chemotherapy can be given randomized, double blind tests versus each other
because of the obvious and debilitating side effects. These therapies were
accepted in comparison with historic experience. To require vitamins to pass
tests that radiation and chemotherapies have not and cannot pass raises
questionable logic. Based on common sense, the randomized and double blind
tests should be required only on poisonous or hazardous
therapies.
Hickey24 gives a thorough review of
how to evaluate a proposed therapy. A few simple questions are sufficient:
1. Has it helped others?
2. Might it help me?
3. Is it safe?
4. Does it assist other therapies?
Vitamins rate ÔyesÕ on all questions. The new question becomes, "Doctor,
why are you not giving me
high-dose vitamin C?"
There are reasons that oncologists don't administer high-dose vitamin C, but
are they good reasons? Many doctors object to people taking antioxidants
simultaneously with radiation or chemotherapy because they believe that the
vitamin C, acting as an antioxidant, ŌmightĶ protect the cancer cells. However
Davis W. Lamson,25 M.S.,
N.D., summarized thirty-six clinical tests where antioxidants were used with
radiation or chemotherapy. The antioxidants were helpful in thirty-one cases,
neutral or possibly helpful in five and adverse in none. Judith O. Stoute26 reviewed 44 articles
regarding the use of vitamin C with chemotherapy. She found 36 positive studies
or reviews, one neutral study, 2 negative reviews and 4 responses to the
negative reviews. Because vitamin C, radiation, and some chemotherapies appear
to kill cancer by a similar mechanism, vitamin C can generally be used with
radiation and chemotherapy.
Oncologists are trained in the use of mainline therapies. They are frequently
not allowed by peer pressure or state medical boards to recommend ŌunapprovedĶ
therapies such as vitamin C. Doctors are probably not allowed to recommend
other doctors or patients who know about vitamins as therapy. Doctors
donÕt want their peers or prospective patients calling them quacks! Doctors
knowledgeable about vitamins are not allowed to treat cancer but they can
strengthen people with cancer. This distinction is important and most
useful.
Patients need oncologists and their extensive knowledge. However those who
want to use vitamins to augment regular therapies may work with a second doctor
knowledgeable about vitamins as a team member with the oncologist. Doctors
who can assist cancer patients with nutrition and vitamins may be located at
The American College for Advancement of Medicine (www.acam.org). Also the phone
book may list integrative, complementary, or alternative doctors. One can
inquire of dietitians, home care nurses, compounding pharmacists,
chiropractors, naturopathic physicians, and support group members to locate
medical professionals who know vitamins.
Tests on Vitamins
Large, randomized tests are useful for poisonous therapies that are expected to
show small improvements. These tests are sufficiently expensive that the drug
companies will probably never support low-profit vitamins. The U.S. government,
in close contact with the drug companies, has not repeated either Cameron's or
Hoffer's therapy. Creagan's and Moertel's two tests with different procedures
and results did not show that vitamin C to be harmful. Their claim (that
vitamin C does not help cancer patients) applies only to their regimens.
Cameron's clinical trial (even with retrospectively matched controls) is
convincing because the vitamin-taking patients lived four times as long as
those without vitamin C. Hoffer's multivitamin detailed results are also
convincing. Many doctors have used high-dose vitamins for cancer therapy: 1,300
by Hoffer and 1,000 by Cameron. They believe that vitamins for cancer therapy
are sufficiently tested that they can now be used with proper medical
supervision.
As Hickey points out, the benefits of ascorbate therapy clearly outweigh the
risks.
Patient Options
Patients
in a hospice situation might well consider ascorbate vitamins. For them,
the oncologist realizes that surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy have helped
as much as they can and doctors knowledgeable about vitamins are available.
Terminal patients are frequently willing to try experimental
therapies. Terminal patients often enter experimental clinical trials. In
these tests half of the patients often get a placebo and thus are not
helped. Vitamins are safer and offer more hope to terminal patients- -hope
based on clinical trials of over a thousand people. CameronÕs first patients
were too sick to be helped by regular therapies but vitamin C did help them
considerably and also reduced their pain. Patients with an initial cancer diagnosis
might also consider Cameron's or Hoffer's vitamin therapy. This situation is
less tested but general experience says that early treatments often work better
than the same treatment given later.
The government's recommended amount of vitamins is based on healthy people.
Sick patients need extra vitamins. Hoffer's success is at least partly due to a
good diet and extra vitamins. Some patients, at their own risk, may
quietly add vitamins to regular therapies without the knowledge of their oncologist. Keeping
everyone fully involved is safer.
Discussion
Regular cancer therapies are only moderately
successful. CameronÕs vitamin C therapy and HofferÕs multivitamin cancer
therapies are reasonably well tested even if not given a randomized test.
Vitamin C is very safe and its side effects are apparently temporary. A therapy
based on work at the National Cancer Institute may explain why vitamin C, an
antioxidant, can act as an oxidant within cancer cells. This mechanism
applies to all types of cancer that take in excess glucose. This may explain why
Hoffer obtained good results with 30 types of cancer. We have the hope
that all, yes all, cancer patients may eventually be helped by HofferÕs safe
and economical therapy.
The therapies of Cameron and Hoffer have not been given randomized tests and probably wonÕt- -for lack of money. Most oncologists do not study vitamins as cancer therapy and are not trained or allowed to prescribe vitamins as cancer therapy. Doctors knowledgeable about vitamins but not certified as oncologist