Excerpt

Vitamins Can Kill Cancer

Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation are good, standard cancer therapies but even with these, one-third of cancer patients die in five years. Can we make these therapies more effective? Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D. a physician who had earned his Ph.D. studying vitamins and is the author of Vitamin C and Cancer chose diet and vitamins to help patients live longer and to combat the bodily weakening caused by regular therapies. Hoffer, a psychiatrist, received his first cancer patients because they were depressed. One of these early patients had pancreatic cancer. Because the tumor at the head of her pancreas was inoperable, 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! Yet, the American Cancer Society reports that 96% of pancreatic cancer patients die within five years.

Hoffers Multivitamins

Beginning in 1978, Hoffer started a 15-year test on 134 advanced cancer patients. His approach was to counter the weakening effects of the cancer, surgery, radiation and chemotherapy by strengthening the body and the immune system. His early vitamin regimen has been modified to give Table 1.1. He recommends a diet low in meat, very low in sugar but high in fruits, vegetables and water.

Table 1.1. Dr. Hoffers Average Regimen

Use surgery, radiation and chemotherapy in moderation.

Beta carotene, 30,000 IU
Vitamin B complex B-50 to B-100
Vitamin C 12,000 mg
range 3,000 40,000
Vitamin E, 300 IU
Selenium 600 mcg
Zinc 60 mg

Some patients received more B-3, vitamin A at 10,000 to 50,000 IU, and beta carotene up to 75,000 IU. Calcium and magnesium were occasionally included. Pills are taken each day in 3 divided doses with meals. The vitamin C may be taken as pills, powder or as sodium ascorbate.

Hoffer 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, he recommends that patients receive 100,000 mg of sodium ascorbate by IV daily. He says In many cases this kind of very safe chemotherapy...I think would bring most cancers under control pretty quickly.

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 advantage of vitamins, diet and hope compared to those who rejected vitamins.

What Types Of Cancer?

Hoffer has treated over thirty types of cancers with impressive results, Table 1.2. Most of his patients had advanced cancers that could not be helped by surgery, radiation or chemotherapy. For example in his test group, those who refused vitamins lived a median of 2.6 months. Those who accepted vitamins lived 45 months or 17 times longer. 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 1.2. Median Survival of Hoffers Patients
with Various Types of Adv. 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 30 types 45 2.6

Hoffers vitamin therapy has 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.

Vitamin Acceptance

In 1973 Cameron reported on a successful clinical test of vitamin C for 100 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 based on historic experience. To require vitamins to pass tests that radiation and chemotherapies have not and cannot pass demonstrates questionable logic.

Hickey gives a thorough review of how to evaluate a proposed therapy. A few simple questions are sufficient:

1. Has it helped others?
2. Is it safe?
3. Can I continue known therapies?
4. Might it help me?

With regard to vitamins, the answer is yes on all questions. The new question becomes, Doctor, why are you not giving me high-dose vitamin C?

There are reasons that oncologists dont administer high-dose vitamin C, but are they good reasons? Oncologists are trained in the use of mainline therapies. Because of peer pressure and mandates of state medical boards, they are frequently not allowed to recommend unapproved therapies such as vitamin C. They are likewise hesitant to recommend doctors or patients who know about vitamins as therapy. Most doctors knowledgeable about vitamins are not allowed to treat cancer, but they can strengthen people who have cancer. This narrow distinction is important and most useful.

A patient who wants to use vitamins can ask his family doctor (or a nutrition-knowledgeable doctor) for vitamins to strengthen his body.