High-Dose Vitamin C Enhances Cancer Immunotherapy

High-Dose Vitamin C Enhances Cancer Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy has transformed cancer treatment, but many patients do not achieve durable responses. Magrì and colleagues investigated whether high-dose vitamin C could enhance the effectiveness of immunotherapy by modulating the tumor microenvironment and immune response.
This study used a combination of in vitro experiments and animal models of cancer to evaluate the effects of pharmacologic vitamin C in conjunction with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Researchers examined tumor growth, immune cell infiltration, and molecular changes within the tumor microenvironment when vitamin C was added to immunotherapy.
The results showed that high-dose vitamin C enhanced the anti-tumor activity of immunotherapy, leading to greater tumor regression compared with immunotherapy alone in preclinical models. This effect was associated with increased infiltration and activation of cytotoxic T cells within tumors, as well as epigenetic modulation that may improve tumor immunogenicity and immune recognition.
Although these findings are based on preclinical models, they provide strong mechanistic evidence that vitamin C may act as an immunomodulatory agent. This work supports further investigation into high-dose vitamin C as a potential adjunct to immunotherapy in cancer treatment.

Reference:

Magrì A, Germano G, Lorenzato A, Lamba S, Chilà R, Montone M, Amodio V, Ceruti T, Sassi F, Arena S, Abrignani S, D’Incalci M, Zucchetti M, Di Nicolantonio F, Bardelli A. High-dose vitamin C enhances cancer immunotherapy. Sci Transl Med. 2020;12(532):eaay8707. doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.aay8707. PMID: 32102933.