The Effect of Ascorbic Acid on Pathohistological Tumor Characteristics and Phenotype Characteristics of Lymphocytes during the Development of Experimental Mammary Carcinoma in Mice

The environmental factors are considered to have a very important role in the development of different types of carcinoma (1,2). Among them, the nutritive factors containing initiators and promoters of carcinogenesis or acting as genotoxic carcinogens are of special importance. On the other hand, some nutritive deficiencies may influence the appearance of malignant diseases (3,4). Therefore, Marshal et al. showed that the risk of oral carcinoma development increased along with the decrease of vitamin A and vitamin C (ascorbic acid) intake (5). These facts are supported by the results of Graham et al. claiming that vitamin C had a preventive role in the development of laryngeal carcinoma (6). Several epidemiological studies showed that the consumption of vitamin C within the food intake decreased the risk of gastrointestinal and other malignant tumors appearance (7,8). The study of Cameron and Pauling showed the beneficial effect of the application of high dosage of vitamin C on the patients’ survival in the terminal stage of malignant disease (9). However, these results were not confirmed by Cregan et al. (10). The results of several experimental studies concerning the relationship between vitamin C and malignant tumors have been published. Pauling et al. showed that spontaneous appearance of mammary carcinoma in mice corresponded with the decrease of ascorbic acid concentration in serum (11). Fraizer and McGinn published data claiming that the addition of vitamin C (1mg/ml) in drinking water led to the significant increase of the survival time of C3H/HEJ mice after the implantation of mammary adenocarcinoma cells (12). However, Abul-Haij and Kelliher did not obtain the same results by applying a similar experimental model (13).