A study claims that high doses of vitamin C can possibly stop the progression of lethal blood cancer. Vitamin C encourages faulty stem cells in the bone marrow to die, claims the study. Certain genetic changes are known to reduce the ability of an enzyme called TET2 to encourage stem cells to become mature blood cells, which eventually die, in many patients with certain kinds of leukaemia, researchers said.
"We are excited by the prospect that high-dose vitamin C might become a safe treatment for blood diseases caused by TET2-deficient leukaemia stem cells, most likely in combination with other targeted therapies," said a professor at a University in New York. (NYU) in the US. Changes in the genetic code (mutations) that reduce TET2 function are found in 10 per cent of patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), 30 per cent of those with a form of pre-leukaemia called myelodysplastic…
