Really hoping this won't get deleted like it did on reddit.com/r/cancer and on Cancer Research UK forums...

I wanted to write up my experience with intravenous vitamin C ("IVC") so others could find this post with Google and consider if it was worth trying for themselves. Almost no clinical trials have been performed with this but the fundamental scientific research is encouraging.

My cousin got diagnosed at 26 with stage 4 bowel cancer, spread to liver with hints of spreading to lungs. She underwent various chemotherapy, surgery, radiotherapy and radio ablation rounds. In the end, the cancer kept coming back.

She was offered irinotecan however she turned it down after 1 cycle as she said it was too much bother (doctor told her 5% chance of it helping). Instead, she opted to try IVC treatment, following the Riordan clinic protocol. I have no idea if she hoped to cure the cancer with this or just improve her quality of life.

For those with KRAS mutant cancers, there is research to suggest it can be effective when used against those types. She had G12D variant for what it's worth (the most common subtype).

She had a PICC line installed (much easier than inserting a cannula everyday - I had to go on a course to learn how to use the cannula, thankfully I only did it a couple of times for her). The IVC was administered easily via the PICC line. We had to buy the vitamin C from Germany because it is incredibly hard to get hold of in the UK.

We administered 60-75 grams of vitamin C in saline every 1-2 days. The only obvious side effect was oedema of the feet (swelling of fluid in the feet). In future I would try Ringer's lactate instead of saline to see if that helped the oedema as it better matches the body's natural electrolytes.

After 4 weeks of this treatment the tumour was still growing and we stopped when she was too poorly and it was too much bother for her. She died 2 weeks later.

If I was in this position again, I would suggest to her that we administered alpha lipoic acid ("ALA") in addition to IVC. This study https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6142095/ is the protocol I would follow if I had my time again with her. They used both oral and intravenous ALA on someone to cure kidney cancer. I would also test her blood concentration of vitamin C at regular intervals to ensure it was above the cancer-killing limit (probably hard to do for an amateur but where there is a will, there is a way).

I am aware of the plethora of dodgy diets and cancer treatments out there. IVC does kill cancer (especially KRAS) but only when the blood concentration is high enough for long enough. Whether you can clinically reach that concentration for the requisite time period is another question.

Thanks for reading.