Eat oranges, lemon to boost vitamin C and fight cancer, says study

A recent study on cancer therapy claims that high hose of vitamin C has the ability to treat the deadly disease.

The research was conducted by researchers from University of Iowa Health Care

It revealed that vitamin C, when administered intravenously, has positive effects in lung cancer and pancreatic cancer when combined with chemotherapy or radiotherapy as it has the ability to fight cancer cells.

Vitamin C is an antioxidant compound found in a wide range of fruit and vegetables (oranges, grapefruits, lemons, cabbages). 

According to the study, vitamin C breaks down to form hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) that can damage DNA and tissue.

Besides, it also stated that cancer cells find it difficult to fight and survive the effects of hydrogen peroxide.

"In this paper we demonstrate that cancer cells are much less efficient in removing hydrogen peroxide than normal cells. Thus, cancer cells are much more prone to damage and death from a high amount of hydrogen peroxide," said Garry Buettner, professor of radiation oncology at the University of Iowa.

"This explains how the very, very high levels of vitamin C used in our clinical trials do not affect normal tissue, but can be damaging to tumor tissue," Buettner added.

The study also cleared that hyrogen peroxide is not harmful to the healthy, non-cancerous cells which have high levels of catalase as it helps them keep levels of hydrogen peroxide

"Our results suggest that cancers with low levels of catalase are likely to be the most responsive to high-dose vitamin C therapy, whereas cancers with relatively high levels of catalase may be the least responsive," Garry conlcuded.

The research might prove helpful in the treatment of cancer patients.