Basal cell carcinoma is the most common type of skin cancer in the United States, with 2.8 million new cases each year, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation. Although it's hardly ever fatal, untreated cancers can be disfiguring, and even when treated, the financial costs can be high. It's no wonder that patients are turning to alternative therapies to prevent these cancers, with ascorbic acid one of the best known supplements.
Identification
Skin cancer can either take the life-threatening melanoma form or the less-serious nonmelanoma form, including basal cell, with 75 percent of all skin cancers falling into this latter category, as reported by the American Cancer Society. Basal cell cancers are slow-growing and painless, with the only symptoms being a skin bump or growth that is pearly or waxy or a sore that bleeds easily and doesn't heal. Treatment varies depending upon the location and how extensive the cancer is, but may involve outpatient surgical procedures.
Ascorbic Acid Benefits
Ascorbic acid, or vitamin C, has been closely associated with cancer prevention and treatment every since Nobel Prize-winning scientist Linus Pauling began to advocate for it in the 1960s, although some of his ideas remain controversial. However, your body does need vitamin C to make the protein collagen, used in forming skin, blood vessels and other tissues. Vitamin C is also an antioxidant, meaning it blocks damage from free radicals that alter DNA and communication among the cells in your body and cause cancer.
Cancer Prevention
Although some studies have attempted to investigate the link between ascorbic acid consumption and the risk of skin cancer, they are primarily dietary studies that rely upon patient reporting, with mixed results. In the September 2007 issue of the "Journal of Nutrition," researchers published a study of 14,000 adult subjects in France who took either antioxidants including vitamin C or a placebo. After a median follow-up period of 7.5 years, the incidence of nonmelanoma skin cancer was the same between the antioxidant and placebo groups. However, both topical application of an ascorbic acid cream and ascorbic acid supplements taken prior to ultraviolent irradiation prevented skin cell damage in a study published in the "Journal of Drugs in Dermatology" in 2006.
Cancer Treatment
Even fewer studies have examined the use of vitamin C for treating pre-existing nonmelanoma skin cancers, and most of these are older studies. One report, in "Experimental and Toxicologic Pathology" in March 1992, gave a daily vitamin C dose of 50 mg/kg of body weight for nine months to rats that had basal cell carcinomas induced by a chemical carcinogen. The vitamin C was shown to have anti-tumor effects by boosting the ability of skin cells to inhibit cancer cell metabolism and proliferation while boosting the production of healthy collagen.
References
- University of Maryland Medical Center; Ascorbic Acid; Steven D. Ehrlich, N.M.D.; June 2009
- MedlinePlus; Basal Cell Carcinoma; Kevin Berman, M.D.; February 2008
- "Journal of Nutrition"; Antioxidant Supplementation Increases the Risk of Skin Cancers in Women but Not in Men; S. Hercberg, et al.; September 2007
- "Journal of Drugs in Dermatology"; Immune Protection, Natural Products, and Skin Cancer: Is There Anything New Under The Sun?: S. Aboutalebi and F.M. Strickland; 2006
- Skin Cancer Foundation: Skin Cancer Facts
- "Experimental and Toxicologic Pathology"; Ultrastructure and Cell Surface Studies of Cancer Cells Following Vitamin C Administration; A. Lupulescu; March 1992
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