Did you take your vitamins today? It’s not always easy to remember with such busy lives, but after you read this blog, you’ll be sure to make vitamins part of your daily routine if you haven’t already!

Two recent studies, published in the journals Nature and Cell, reported that vitamin C has a direct impact on the function of blood forming, or hematopoietic stem cells, and can be used to protect mice from getting a blood cancer called leukemia.

Science reporter Bradley Fikes compared the findings of the two studies yesterday in the San Diego Union Tribune. According to Fikes, the Nature study, which was conducted by scientists at UT Southwestern, “found that human and mouse hematopoietic stem cells absorb unusually large amounts of vitamin C. When the cells were depleted of vitamin C, they were more likely to turn into leukemia cells.”

As for the Cell study, scientists from NYU Langone Health “found that high doses of vitamin C can cause leukemic cells to die, potentially making it a useful and safe chemotherapy agent.” For more details on this particular study, see our blog from last week and the video below.

Dr. Benjamin Neel, director of NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, discusses how vitamin C may “tell” faulty stem cells in the bone marrow to mature and die normally, instead of multiplying to cause blood cancers.

Vitamin C levels are crucial for preventing leukemia

The common factor between the two studies is a gene called Tet2, which is turned on in blood stem cells and protects them from over-proliferating and acquiring genetic mutations that transform them into leukemia cells. If one copy of the Tet2 gene is genetically mutated, treating blood stem cells with vitamin C can make up for this partial loss in Tet2 function. However, if both copies of Tet2 are mutated, its protective functions are completely lost and blood stem cells can turn cancerous.

Fikes reached out to Sean Morrison, senior author on the Nature study, for an explanation about the relationship between vitamin C and Tet2, and how it can be leveraged to prevent or treat leukemia:

Sean Morrison

“The Cell study showed that high doses of vitamin C can compensate for Tet2 mutations, restoring normal function, Morrison said. Usually, transformation of normal cells into leukemic cells is irreversible, but the study demonstrated that’s not true when the leukemia is driven by Tet2 mutations.”

“The Nature study demonstrated that vitamin C is a limiting factor in the proper function of Tet2, Morrison said. People have two copies of the gene, one from each parent. When one of the genes is disabled, it’s important to take the full recommended dose of vitamin C so the remaining gene can exert its full tumor-suppressing effect.”

Before you place your bulk order of vitamin C on amazon, you should be aware that Morrison and his colleagues found that giving mice super doses of the supplement failed to further reduce their risk of getting leukemia. Thus, it seems that having the right levels of vitamin C in blood stem cells and healthy copies of the Tet2 gene are vital for preventing leukemia.

Vitamin C, a panacea for cancer?

These two studies raise important questions. Do vitamin C levels play a role in the development of other cancer cells and could this supplement be used as a treatment for other types of cancers?

Since the 1970’s, scientists (including the famous American scientist Linus Pauling) and doctors have pursued vitamin C as a potential cancer treatment. Early stage research revealed that vitamin C plays a role in slowing the growth of various types of cancer cells including prostate, colon and brain cancer cells. More recently, some of this research has progressed to clinical trials that are testing high-doses of vitamin C either by itself or in combination with chemotherapy drugs in cancer patients. Some of these trials have reported an improved quality of life and increased average survival time in patients, but more research and trials are necessary to determine whether vitamin C is a truly effective anti-cancer therapy.

Now that Morrison and his team have a better understanding of how vitamin C levels affect cancer risk, they plan to address some of these outstanding questions in future studies.

“Our data also suggest that probably not all cancers are increased by vitamin C depletion. We particularly would predict that certain leukemias would be increased in the absence of vitamin C. We’re collaborating with the Centers for Disease Control right now to look more carefully at the epidemiological data that have been collected over decades, to understand more precisely which cancers are at increased risk in people that have lower levels of vitamin C.”