ALTERNATIVE CANCER SOLUTION

 Alternative Cancer Treatment - Patient 1

www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content-nw/full/174/7/937/F217

Fig. 1: Chest radiography, November 1996, about 1 month after intravenous vitamin C therapy was started. Cannonball lesions are evident in both lung fields, as indicated by the arrows and lines.

This case was previously reported but without long-term follow-up, without detail, and with no independent pathologic confirmation.25,26 A 51-year-old woman was found in August 1995 to have a tumour involving her left kidney. At nephrectomy in September 1995 this was shown to be a renal cell carcinoma 9 cm in diameter with thrombus extending into the renal vein. Chest radiography results were normal, and there was no evidence of metastatic disease on CT scan of the chest and abdomen. In March 1996 a CT scan of the chest indicated several new, small, rounded and well-defined soft tissue masses no larger than 5 mm in diameter; they were judged consistent with metastatic cancer. By November 1996 chest radiography revealed multiple cannonball lesions (Fig. 1).

The patient declined conventional cancer treatment and instead chose to receive high-dose vitamin C administered intravenously at a dosage of 65 g twice per week starting in October 1996 and continuing for 10 months. She also used other alternative therapies: thymus protein extract, N-acetylcysteine, niacinamide and whole thyroid extract (Table 1). In June 1997 chest radiography results were normal except for one remaining abnormality in the left lung field, possibly a pulmonary scar (Fig. 2).

http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content-nw/full/174/7/937/F217

Fig. 2 : Chest radiography, June 1997, showing regression of the lesions; the arrow indicates one residual abnormality.

In October 2001 a new mass 3.5 cm in diameter in the anterior right lung was detected on radiography. A transthoracic biopsy revealed small-cell carcinoma of the lung. The patient opted for intravenous vitamin C injections. The lung mass remained constant in size in radiograpy taken in May and August 2002 but had increased to 4 cm in views taken in October 2002. In early November hyponatremia developed. Two weeks later the patient was admitted to hospital with abdominal distension and constipation. Barium studies revealed slow transit but no intestinal obstruction. Results of a CT scan of the abdomen were normal. She died shortly afterward, and no autopsy was performed. Histopathologic review of the primary renal tumour at the NIH confirmed the diagnosis of clear-cell renal carcinoma, type, nuclear grade III/IV, with the largest diameter measuring 6.5 cm. The tumour involved the renal vein and hilar perinephric fat. Pathologic review of the lung tumour biopsy specimen of October 2001 was not conducted at the NIH. Local pathologists diagnosed this specimen as indicating small-cell lung cancer and not recurrent metastatic renal cell carcinoma.
This case describes the regression of pulmonary metastatic renal cancer in a patient receiving high-dose intravenous vitamin C therapy. According to the NCI Best Case Series guidelines, the credibility of this case would be increased by biopsy proof that the multiple slowly growing bilateral cannonball lung nodules in this patient with known renal cell carcinoma were actually malignant. However, in this case, the clinical characteristics and evolution of the pulmonary lesions, in the absence of bacterial infection or other systemic disease, make any other diagnosis unlikely. The clinician attending the patient deemed a confirmatory biopsy to be unnecessary and inappropriate in this setting. A plausible alternative explanation to the conclusion that this patient's metastatic renal cell cancer responded to intravenous vitamin C therapy is that the tumours spontaneously regressed. Spontaneous regression has been reported in renal cell cancer, but it is rare, occurring in fewer than 1% of cases and typically after nephrectomy, radiation to the primary tumour or primary tumour embolization.31,32 Here, metastatic disease appeared several months after nephrectomy, rather than regressing in response to it. As well, the primary cancer was nuclear grade III/IV and involved the renal vein, factors associated with a highly unfavourable prognosis.31.
Of note, more than 4 years after stopping intravenous vitamin C therapy and with the renal cell cancer in complete remission, primary small-cell lung cancer was diagnosed in this patient, who was a long-standing cigarette smoker. The second cancer did not respond to high-dose vitamin C therapy. From the clinical history it appears the tumour remained a constant size for many months and likely slowly progressed until her death about a year after diagnosis despite the resumption of intravenous vitamin C therapy.

 

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