high dose IV vitamin C shown to be treatment option in Cancer. Granted in a mouse study, but high dose IV vitamin C shown to decrease growth rates of ovarian, pancreatic, and glioblastoma cancers.
pancreatic cancer survival risk is shorted by 2.43 with elevated estradiol in women. This risk is linked to an increase in TNF alpha. In contrast, men survival risk was worse by 1.96 odds ratio with low Testosterone. Again, inflammation was the culprit.
liposomal curcumin at 20 mg/kg reduced pancreatic tumor growth by 42% in in vitro and xenograft studies. The curcumin, the most prevalent polyphenol in tumeric, was given intraperitoneal in this study.
Study finds that acetyl-11-keto-Beta-boswellic acid (AKBA) reduced growth of pancreatic cancer and metastasis in mouse model. AKBA also inhibits NF-kappaB and induced apoptosis. AKBA is found in Frankinsense.
of the approximately 108 cannabinoids produced by C. sativa, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (thc) is the most relevant because of its high potency and abundance in plant preparations
Tetrahydrocannabinol exerts a wide variety of biologic effects by mimicking endogenous substances—the endocannabinoids anandamide3 and 2-arachidonoylglycerol4,5—that engage specific cell-surface cannabinoid receptors
two major cannabinoid-specific receptors—cb1 and cb2
transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily V, member 1
orphan G protein–coupled receptor 55
Most of the effects produced by cannabinoids in the nervous system and in non-neural tissues rely on cb1 receptor activation
the cb2 receptor was initially described to be present in the immune system6, but was more recently shown to also be expressed in cells from other origins
cardiovascular tone, energy metabolism, immunity, and reproduction
cannabinoids are well known to exert palliative effects in cancer patients
best-established use is the inhibition of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting
thc and other cannabinoids exhibit antitumour effects in a wide array of animal models of cancer
cannabinoid receptors and their endogenous ligands are both generally upregulated in tumour tissue compared with non-tumour tissue
cb2 promotes her2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) pro-oncogenic signalling in breast cancer
pharmacologic activation of cannabinoid receptors decreases tumour growth
endocannabinoid signalling can also have a tumour-suppressive role
pharmacologic stimulation of cb receptors is, in most cases, antitumourigenic. Nonetheless, a few reports have proposed a tumour-promoting effect of cannabinoids
most prevalent effect is the induction of cancer cell death by apoptosis and the inhibition of cancer cell proliferation
impair tumour angiogenesis and block invasion and metastasis
thc and other cannabinoids induce the apoptotic death of glioma cells by cb1- and cb2-dependent stimulation
Autophagy is primarily a cytoprotective mechanism, although its activation can also lead to cell death
autophagy is important for cannabinoid antineoplastic activity
autophagy is upstream of apoptosis in the mechanism of cannabinoid-induced cell death
the effect of cannabinoids in hormone- dependent tumours might rely, at least in part, on the ability to interfere with the activation of growth factor receptors
glioma cells), pharmacologic blockade of either cb1 or cb2 prevents cannabinoid-induced cell death with similar efficacy
other types of cancer cells (pancreatic48, breast24, or hepatic43 carcinoma cells, for example), antagonists of cb2 but not of cb1 inhibit cannabinoid antitumour actions
thc promotes cancer cell death in a cb1- or cb2-dependent manner (or both) at lower concentrations
cannabidiol (cbd), a phytocannabinoid with a low affinity for cannabinoid receptors15, and other marijuana-derived cannabinoids57 have also been proposed to promote the apoptotic death of cancer cells acting independently of the cb1 and cb2 receptors
In cancer cells, cannabinoids block the activation of the vascular endothelial growth factor (vegf) pathway, an inducer of angiogenesi
In vascular endothelial cells, cannabinoid receptor activation inhibits proliferation and migration, and induces apoptosis
cb1 or cb2 receptor agonists (or both) reduce the formation of distant tumour masses in animal models of both induced and spontaneous metastasis, and inhibit adhesion, migration, and invasiveness of glioma64, breast65,66, lung67,68, and cervical68 cancer cells in culture
the ceramide/p8–regulated pathway plays a general role in the antitumour activity of cannabinoids targeting cb1 and cb2
cbd, by acting independently of the cb1 and cb2 receptors, produces a remarkable anti-tumour effect—including reduction of invasiveness and metastasis
cannabinoids can also enhance immune system–mediated tumour surveillance in some contexts
ability of thc to reduce inflammation75,76, an effect that might prevent certain types of cancer
recent observations suggest that the combined administration of cannabinoids with other anticancer drugs acts synergistically to reduce tumour growth
combined administration of gemcitabine (the benchmark agent for the treatment of pancreatic cancer) and various cannabinoid agonists synergistically reduced the viability of pancreatic cancer cells
Other reports indicated that anandamide and HU-210 might also enhance the anticancer activity of paclitaxel89 and 5-fluorouracil90 respectively
Combined administration of thc and cbd enhances the anticancer activity of thc and reduces the dose of thc needed to induce its tumour growth-inhibiting activity
Preclinical animal models have yielded data indicating that systemic (oral or intraperitoneal) administration of cannabinoids effectively decreases tumour growth
Combinations of cannabinoids with classical chemotherapeutic drugs such as the alkylating agent temozolomide (the benchmark agent for the management of glioblastoma80,84) have been shown to produce a strong anticancer action in animal models
pharmacologic inhibition of egfr, erk83, or akt enhances the cell-death-promoting action of thc in glioma cultures (unpublished observations by the authors), which suggests that targeting egfr and the akt and erk pathways could enhance the antitumour effect of cannabinoids
metformin augments chemotherapy in the treatment of pancreatic cancer. It promotes the anti-proliferative effects of mTORC and inhibits the proliferative PI3k/mTOR. It also works synergistically with the known anti-tumor anti-malarial drugs chloroquine and with the herb berberine.
An extensive panel of 43 tumor and 5 normal cell lines were exposed to ascorbate in vitro for ≤2 h to mimic clinical pharmacokinetics
effective concentration that decreased survival 50% (EC50) was determined. EC50 was <10 mM for 75% of tumor cells tested, whereas cytotoxicity was not evident in normal cells with >20 mM ascorbate
The addition of catalase to the medium ameliorated death of ovarian carcinoma (Ovcar5), pancreatic carcinoma (Pan02), and glioblastoma (9L) cells exposed to 10 mM ascorbate (1 h), indicating cytotoxicity was mediated by H2O2
A treatment dose of 4 g ascorbate/kg body weight either once or twice daily did not produce any discernible adverse effects
Xenograft experiments showed that parenteral ascorbate as the only treatment significantly decreased both tumor growth and weight by 41–53%
Peak plasma concentrations of ascorbate approached 30 mM
Pharmacologic concentrations of ascorbate decreased tumor volumes 41–53% in diverse cancer types known for both their aggressive growth and limited treatment options.
Our findings showed that pharmacologic ascorbic acid concentrations were cytotoxic to many types of cancer cells in vitro (Fig. 1A) and significantly impeded tumor progression in vivo without toxicity to normal tissues
The amelioration of ascorbate cytotoxicity in vitro by the addition of catalase was consistent among sensitive cancer cells (Fig. 1B) and points unambiguously to H2O2 generation in the extracellular medium
the current in vivo data support that pharmacologic ascorbate concentrations, which can readily be achieved in humans (Fig. 3E), diminished growth of several aggressive cancer types in mice (Fig. 2) without causing apparent adverse effects.
These intratumoral H2O2 concentrations of >125 μM persisted for >3 h after ascorbate administration