Higher levels of vitamin C associated with reduced gastric cancer risk

A report published in the November, 2006 issue of the journal Carcinogenesis found that having higher serum levels of vitamin C was associated with a reduction in the risk of stomach cancer.

For the current study, researchers evaluated data from participants in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), which involved 23 centers in 10 European countries. Two hundred fifteen participants with gastric cancer (including 199 cases of gastric adenocarcinoma and 16 gastro-esophageal junction adenocarcinomas) were matched for age, gender, and other factors with 416 subjects who did not have cancer. Stored blood samples were analyzed for plasma vitamin C and antibodies to H.pylori, a bacterium whose presence has been implicated as a major gastric cancer risk factor.

Although no association was found between gastric cancer risk and intake of vitamin C from diet as reported by the participants, having higher plasma vitamin C levels was associated with a lower risk of the disease. Participants whose plasma vitamin C was in the top one-fourth of subjects had a 45 percent lower risk of gastric cancer than those whose levels were in the bottom fourth. The effect did not appear to be confined to a particular site or subtype. The benefit of higher vitamin C levels was greater among those who consumed high more red and processed meats, which increase the production of carcinogenic N-nitroso compounds.

The authors suggest that vitamin C's involvement in gastric cancer prevention may be due to its ability to affect cell growth, an antibacterial effect against H. pylori, or the vitamin’s well-known antioxidant property. Another possible mechanism is the ability of the vitamin to inhibit N-nitroso compound formation in the stomach. The lack of a protective association with dietary vitamin C could be due to the failure to take into account efficiency of uptake or bioavailability from food, which can affect plasma vitamin C levels.

“This nested case-control study is one of the largest prospective analyses of the association of plasma and dietary vitamin C levels with gastric cancer risk ever performed on Western European populations,” the authors announced. They suggest further studies to pinpoint the mechanism of vitamin C’s action against gastric cancer, and to determine possible interactions with H.pylori infection and smoking.


Health Concern

Cancer treatment: The critical factors

Determining the best way of treating cancer remains highly controversial, even among mainstream oncologists. What may surprise the reader is the large number of documented therapies that have been overlooked by establishment medicine.

Physicians who practice translational medicine react uniquely when informed about a novel therapy. Their curiosity first motivates them to evaluate the new approach in order to reaffirm safety and efficacy in the context of treatment that is appropriate to the patient's condition. The dedicated translational physician uses novel therapeutics based on:

That which has been established to be effective
That which has a good chance of being effective, and
That which will do no harm or, in the context of the patient's condition, that which is worth taking an appropriate risk.
Once satisfied that a novel therapy has merit, enlightened physicians then integrate this new finding into individual treatment regimens. These physicians, in essence, are translating the results from promising studies directly into life-saving treatments.

http://www.lef.org/protocols/prtcl-147.shtml

http://www.lef.org/newsletter/2006/2006_10_28.htm