Dr. Ocean on the Mechanism of Action of High-Dose Vitamin C in KRAS Mutations

Allyson Ocean, MD, medical oncologist, attending physician, Gastrointestinal Oncology, Weill Cornell Medicine/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, medical oncologist, The Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health, associate professor of medicine, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, discusses ongoing research on high-dose intravenous (IV) vitamin C in KRAS-mutated cells.

The use of high-dose IV vitamin C is being studied in both colon cancer and pancreatic cancer. The way that vitamin C targets the KRAS-mutated cell is through the Warburg effect in which cells travel through a pathway where their energy metabolism is affected when they receive high-dose vitamin C. In a sense, it is a metabolic killing of the cell, forcing the cells into oxidative phosphorylation rather than the glycolytic pathway.

The use of high-dose IV vitamin C in KRAS-mutated cancers is currently on trial as a pilot at Weill Cornell Medicine.