ReviewFrontiers in medicine2025
The dual role of vitamin C in cancer: from antioxidant prevention to prooxidant therapeutic applications.
Review in Frontiers in medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Delayed chemiluminescence of luminol/ascorbic acid system triggered by ultrasound.Ultrasonics sonochemistry · 2026Article
- Dietary Antioxidants and Redox Signaling in Cancer Prevention: Mechanistic Insights and Metabolic Inflammation.Nutrients · 2026Review
- Next-Generation Antioxidants in Cardiovascular Disease: Mechanistic Insights and Emerging Therapeutic Strategies.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Vitamin C (VC), a pleiotropic molecule with context-dependent redox properties, exhibits dual roles in cancer biology through dose-dependent mechanisms. While nutritional VC intake demonstrates chemopreventive effects by scavenging carcinogen-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) and maintaining genomic stability, high-dose intravenous VC acts as a prooxidant to selectively kill tumor cells via ROS-mediated deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) damage, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) depletion, and HIF-1α degradation. Preclinical studies reveal VC's ability to reprogram the tumor microenvironment (TME) through collagen hydroxylation-mediated extracellular matrix remodeling, Treg suppression, and enhancement of CD8+ T cell infiltration. Importantly, VC synergizes with conventional therapies by radio-sensitizing hypoxic tumors through oxygen-sparing effects and reversing platinum resistance via glutathione depletion. Early-phase clinical trials corroborate VC's safety profile and potential to ameliorate chemotherapy-induced fatigue and nephrotoxicity. However, translational challenges persist, including the lack of pharmacokinetic standardization between oral and intravenous routes, tumor-type-specific response heterogeneity, and incomplete understanding of VC's immunomodulatory dynamics. Emerging strategies integrating VC with checkpoint inhibitors and TME-targeted nano-delivery systems show promise in preclinical models. This review synthesizes mechanistic insights from redox biology and immunometabolism to clinical trial data, proposing a framework for optimizing VC-based combination therapies while addressing critical gaps in biomarker development and dose scheduling. Deciphering the molecular determinants of VC's context-dependent anticancer effects may accelerate its rational clinical deployment.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.