Autoschizis: a new word in cancer treatment

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." [3]


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.

Studies have looked at autoschizis in experiments with ovarian cancer [4,5] cells,  liver tumors,[6] bladder tumors,[7] oral squamous cell and salivary gland tumors,[8] and leukemia [9]  to name the abstracts I've come across so far.  Pretreatment with this vitamin C/K combination also potentiates the effect of chemotherapy [10]  and radiation.[10] It also seems nontoxic, leaving normal cells unaffected.  What more could you want? 

"CK(3)-treatment selectively potentiated tumor chemotherapy, produced sensitization of tumors resistant to some drugs, potentiated cancer radiotherapy and caused inhibition of the development of cancer metastases without inducing toxicity in the host. We propose the association of vitamins C and K(3) as an adjuvant cancer therapy which may be introduced into human cancer therapy without any change in the classical anticancer protocols, and without any supplementary risk for patients."

At this point, I am unaware of any human clinical trials which have utilized this vitamin combination. So what sort of dose should we contemplate if we want to try this new treatment?  Well if you took 10,000 mg of vitamin C a day, you need to add 100 mg of Vitamin K-3.  Here's the bad news.  So far I haven't found a source of this synthetic vitamin.  My internet searches so far have led me to European veterinary supply houses and Egyptian pharmacists.  I'll keep you posted.  In the meantime we may have to use plain old natural vitamin K-1.


References:
  1. Life Sci. 1996;59(17):1389-400. 
Synergistic antitumor activity of vitamins C and K3 on human urologic tumor cell lines.Venugopal M, Jamison JM, Gilloteaux J, Koch JA, Summers M, Giammar D, Sowick C, Summers JL.
  2. Scanning. 1998 Nov;20(8):564-75
Cancer cell necrosis by autoschizis: synergism of antitumor activity of vitamin C: vitamin K3 on human bladder carcinoma T24 cells.
Gilloteaux J, Jamison JM, Arnold D, Ervin E, Eckroat L, Docherty JJ, Neal D, Summers JL.
  3. J Histochem Cytochem. 2001 Jan;49(1):109-20. In vivo reactivation of DNases in implanted human prostate tumors after administration of a vitamin C/K(3) combination.
Taper HS, Jamison JM, Gilloteaux J, Gwin CA , Gordon T, Summers JL.
  4. Microsc Microanal. 2003 Aug;9(4):311-29. 
Microscopic aspects of autoschizic cell death in human ovarian carcinoma (2774) cells following vitamin C, vitamin K3 or vitamin C:K3 treatment.
Gilloteaux J, Jamison JM, Arnold D, Taper HS, Von Gruenigen VE, Summers JL.
  5. Anticancer Res. 2003 Jul-Aug;23(4):3279-87. 
The in vitro antitumor activity of vitamins C and K3 against ovarian carcinoma.
von Gruenigen VE, Jamison JM, Gilloteaux J, Lorimer HE, Summers M, Pollard RR, Gwin CA, Summers JL.
  6. Int J Cancer. 1987 Oct 15;40(4):575-9.  Non-toxic potentiation of cancer chemotherapy by combined C and K3 vitamin pre-treatment. Taper HS, de Gerlache J, Lans M, Roberfroid M.
  7. Scanning. 1998 Nov;20(8):564-75  Cancer cell necrosis by autoschizis: synergism of antitumor activity of vitamin C: vitamin K3 on human bladder carcinoma T24 cells.  Gilloteaux J, Jamison JM, Arnold D, Ervin E, Eckroat L, Docherty JJ, Neal D, Summers JL.
  8. Cell Mol Biol (Noisy-le-grand). 2000 Feb;46(1):129-43  Apoptosis-inducing activity of vitamin C and vitamin K.  Sakagami H, Satoh K, Hakeda Y, Kumegawa M.
  9. Anticancer Res. 2001 Sep-Oct;21(5):3439-44.  Synergistic cytotoxic action of vitamin C and vitamin K3. Zhang W, Negoro T, Satoh K, Jiang Y, Hashimoto K, Kikuchi H, Nishikawa H, Miyata T, Yamamoto Y, Nakano K, Yasumoto E, Nakayachi T, Mineno K, Satoh T, Sakagami H.
  10. Int J Cancer. 1987 Oct 15;40(4):575-9. 
Non-toxic potentiation of cancer chemotherapy by combined C and K3 vitamin pre-treatment. Taper HS, de Gerlache J, Lans M, Roberfroid M.
  11. Anticancer Res. 1996 Jan-Feb;16(1):499-503. 
Potentiation of radiotherapy by nontoxic pretreatment with combined vitamins C and K3 in mice bearing solid transplantable tumor. Taper HS, Keyeux A, Roberfroid M.


................................................................
Hey! You're getting these newsletters either because you've signed up to be on the list or because we took the liberty of putting you on.  If you want your name removed simply leave a message at the office (303-337-4884) or go to the website: denvernaturopathic.com and unsubscribe, or reply with the message "REMOVE" in the subject line.  If on the other hand you want to be added to the mailing list follow the prior instructions but subscribe. We are finally trying to keep up with our website and are posting most of these newsletters in our 'archive' section.  Frequently we also post abstracts of references quoted for the intellectually curious.