Life Sci. 2004 Jul 9;75(8):955-67
Inhibition of the development of metastases by dietary vitamin C:K3 combination.
Taper HS, Jamison JM, Gilloteaux J, Summers JL, Calderon PB.
Unite de Pharmacocinetique, Metabolisme, Nutrition, et Toxicologie, Universite Catholique de Louvain, Avenue E. Mounier, 73, B-1200 Bruxelles, Belgium. [email protected]
The tumor growth-inhibiting and chemo-potentiating effects of vitamin C and K(3)combinations have been demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of orally administered vitamin C and K(3) on the metastasis of mouse liver tumor (T.L.T.) cells implanted in C3H mice. Adult male C3H mice were given water containing vitamin C and K3 (15 g/0.15 g dissolved in 1000 ml) beginning 2 weeks before tumor transplantation until the end of the experiment. T.L.T. cells (106) were implanted intramuscularly in the right thigh of mice. All mice were sacrificed 42 days after tumor transplantation. Primary tumor, lungs, lymph nodes and other organs or tissues suspected of harboring metastases were macroscopically examined. Samples of primary tumors, their local lymph nodes, lungs and main organs such as liver, kidneys, spleen were taken for histological examination. Forty-two percent of control mice exhibited lung metastases and 27% possessed metastases in local lymph nodes whereas 24% of vitamin-treated mice exhibited lung metastases and 10% possessed local lymph nodes metastases. The total number of lung metastases was 19 in control group and 10 in vitamin C and K(3)-treated mice. Histopathological examination of the metastatic tumors from the vitamin-treated mice revealed the presence of many tumor cells undergoing autoschizic cell death. These results demonstrate that oral vitamin C and K(3) significantly inhibited the metastases of T.L.T. tumors in C3H mice. At least a portion of this inhibition was due to tumor cell death by autoschizis.
Autoschizis: a new word in cancer treatment
Denver Naturopathic Clinic
Subject: A combination of vitamin C and vitamin K-3 in a 100:1 ratio causes a unique form of cancer cell destruction that has been named autoschizis.
Just when I thought I could pronounce apoptosis without stumbling, there’s a new word to learn in cancer treatment. The word is autoschizis. Honest.
Researchers started playing around with a combination of vitamin C and a synthetic form of Vitamin K, called K-3 or menadione in the late 1990’s watching what it did to cancer cells. Cancer cells really don’t like this combination. Initial reports described the resulting cell death as due to apoptosis [1] but soon it became apparent that the process of destruction was different and of course needed its own name. The word autoschizis was coined I think by a group headed by J. Gilloteaux.[2] I of course wish he had somehow incorporated his own name in naming the process. When you read the descripitons of what happens to the cancer cells, it sounds like they ran into a guillotine. In one abstract Guilloteaux describes the process of cell death:
“VitC:VitK3-treated cells showed exaggerated membrane damage and an enucleation process in which the perikarya separate from the main cytoplasmic cell body by self-excision. Self-excisions continued for perikarya which contained an intact nucleus surrounded by damaged organelles. After further excisions of cytoplasm, the nuclei exhibited nucleolar segregation and chromatin decondensation followed by nuclear karryorhexis and karyolysis. This process of cell death induced by oxidative stress was named autoschizis because it showed both apoptotic and necrotic morphologic characteristics.”
Or in another description:
“VitC:VitK3-treated cells showed exaggerated membrane damage and an enucleation process in which the perikarya separate from the main cytoplasmic cell body by self-excision. Self-excisions continued for perikarya which contained an intact nucleus surrounded by damaged organelles. After further excisions of cytoplasm, the nuclei exhibited nucleolar segregation and chromatin decondensation followed by nuclear karryorhexis and karyolysis. This process of cell death induced by oxidative stress was named autoschizis because it showed both apoptotic and necrotic morphologic characteristics.”
Let me try and translate this into simple language you can visualize. Apparently the cell membrane forms cuts or schisms which allow the cytoplasm to leak out. The cell shrinks in size until about only 1/3 its original size and only the nucleus and organelles remain surrounded by a tiny ribbon of cytoplasm. If apoptosis is a quiet cell suicide in which the cell curls up and dies, autoschizis is a bit more violent; the cell slashes itself open violently spilling out its insides.