open access
Conclusions
A
chief interest of this early-phase cancer trial for general readers is
the paradoxical nature of IVC therapy. Despite its biological and
clinical plausibility, with only rare exceptions [
11]
it is ignored by conventional cancer investigators and funding agencies
even as integrative and complementary cancer therapists prescribe it
widely, without reporting the kind of clinical data that is normally
gathered in conventional cancer drug development [
27].
The
present state of cancer chemotherapy is unsatisfactory. New cancer
drugs continue to be developed and approved on the basis of marginal
improvements in survival at an unsustainably high financial cost [
59].
It would seem more rational for cancer investigators to attempt to
improve the effectiveness of well known, inexpensive generic cancer
chemotherapies by studying their clinical interactions with
antioxidants, especially vitamin C [
32].
However, the lack of financial reward and tainted association with
alternative medicine could dissuade conventional investigators and
funding agencies from seriously considering this approach. At present,
the few cancer clinical trials of IVC being carried out are, like this
one, small and supported by limited funding from integrative cancer
foundations. Even if serious interest in funding and carrying out large,
formal clinical trials were to develop, data are lacking as to which
cancers and chemotherapy regimens to focus on.
The
present study neither proves nor disproves IVC’s value in cancer
therapy. The present data indicate it would be premature to attempt
unfocused phase III clinical trials of this therapy at the present time.
This study does provide useful information, and suggests a feasible,
individual-case oriented strategy for evaluating plausible but poorly
understood and unproven metabolic therapies in a mainstream academic
environment that is uninterested in them [
60].
If carried out in sufficient numbers, simple studies like this one
could identify specific clusters of cancer type, IVC and chemotherapy
regimen in which unexpectedly beneficial outcomes or exceptional
responses occur frequently enough to justify focused clinical trials.