Researchers from the University of Salford, near Manchester, U.K. found that, in laboratory tests, vitamin C inhibited the growth of cancer cells. In particular, Vitamin C ‘starved Cancer Stem Cells’. Cancer stem cells have been found to lie at the heart of all cancers.
No drug is currently available that can kill a Cancer Stem Cell. Indeed, this is the main reason why drugs can knock a tumour back, 50, 60 or even 70 per cent, but unless you actively take certain precautions it can re-grow. Vitamin C was found by the researchers to inhibit glycolysis, the process by which cancer cells (and yeasts and certain microbes) feed.
In a side by side test, vitamin C was observed to be 10 times more potent than the new drug 2-DG.
The researchers at Salford had been looking at a number of bioactive compounds, such as CAPE (in bee propolis) and milk thistle (silmarin). Vitamin C was more effective that either. The research was led by Dr. Gloria Bonuccelli and Dr. Michael Lisanti.
Go To: Bioactive foods tackle Cancer Stem Cells
Chris Woollams, former Oxford University Biochemist and founder of CANCERactive added, "At the National Cancer Institute in America scientists like Dr. Young S. Kim have done a lot of work on Bioactive natural compounds and shown that, while eating a poor diet allows a cancer to re-grow, eating a good diet containing any of a number of ’Bioactive natural compounds can increase survival and even prevent a cancer returning’. It is well worth reading this report if you have cancer."