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Nov 27, 2006 6:55 pm US/Eastern
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Some Doctors Treat Cancer With Vitamin C
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
When Denise McCabe was diagnosed with breast cancer there was little hope and the intensive chemotherapy was debilitating.
She said, "I couldn't get off the couch so I decided I had to do something."
What she did was try an alternative therapy: massive doses of intravenous vitamin C. "It just would make me have a little bit more energy and I felt better," McCabe said.
And that's not all. She said, "I started to notice that my cancer markers suddenly started to drop."
The intravenous injections have the vitamin C equivalent of 500 oranges. It works in the lab. Dr. Glenn Rothfeld said, "when you use vitamin C in very high doses in a test tube it kills cancer cells."
Most experts said that's a far cry from treating disease in human beings however. Dr. Richard Penson said, "there really has been no study that 's shown a significant impact on cancer."
Still, some doctors choose to offer patients intravenous vitamin C in combination with traditional treatments. Dr. Rothfeld points out, "in a number of patients, although certainly not all, it has seemed to arrest or slow down the progression of their cancer."
Helen Kwak believes the treatment saved her mother's life.
After chemotherapy and radiation, Kwak's mom lost 70 pounds in less than two months. She said, "I thought she was going to die."
And breast cancer survivor Denise McCabe is a believer. "When you think of it. it is pretty amazing," she said.
The debate about high-dose vitamin C has been going on for decades. And still, there's no real proof it works.
Most doctors will tell you your body takes in what it needs, and gets rid of the rest. Also, vitamin C injections can have side effects, like dizziness and faintness.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)