A team of New York researchers gave large doses of vitamin C, equivalent of a 2,000-milligram, to mice with tumors prior to chemotherapy. The researchers found that the vitamin C reduced the effectiveness of the chemotherapy by about 30 percent to 70 percent.
The dosage is equivalent of the vitamin C found in 75 six-ounce glasses of orange juice and its supplement packing is found in health stores. The vitamin disrupts chemotherapy's killing processes and provides protection to the cancer cells, say scientists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
However, researchers also added that smaller doses of vitamin C, such as those found in food and ordinary multivitamins, might not cause any problem. The findings were published in the October issue of the journal Cancer Research.
