STUDY: Vitamin C + Grape Seed Extract Outperforms Chemotherapy for Tumor Reduction in Mice
Natural combo cut cancerous tumor volume by 76.61%, surpassing the “red devil” doxorubicin (68.82%) in a head-to-head preclinical study.
A recent preclinical cancer study produced a striking result: in a mouse solid tumor model (Ehrlich carcinoma), a combination of Grape Seed Extract (GSE) + Vitamin C reduced tumor volume more than chemotherapy. Researchers compared multiple treatment arms—including doxorubicin (DOX, nicknamed the “red devil”) as the chemo comparator—and found that the GSE + Vitamin C group showed the greatest mean tumor volume reduction, outperforming DOX in this experiment.
Greater tumor reduction than chemotherapy
Untreated tumor controls (SEC): 0% reduction (mean tumor volume: 735.40 mm³ ± 11.89)
Vitamin C alone (AA): 56.94% reduction (316.69 mm³ ± 8.74)
Grape Seed Extract alone (GSE): 63.40% reduction (269.14 mm³ ± 13.69)
Chemotherapy (doxorubicin): 68.82% reduction (229.27 mm³ ± 6.898)
GSE + Vitamin C (GSE + AA): 76.61% reduction (171.977 mm³ ± 4.151)
In other words, within this model, the GSE + Vitamin C combination produced the greatest mean tumor shrinkage, exceeding the reduction seen with doxorubicin chemotherapy.
GSE + Vitamin C rewired tumor biology and flipped the immune microenvironment
Beyond simply reducing tumor size, the GSE + Vitamin C combination produced marker changes consistent with a real mechanistic anti-cancer effect—suppressing tumor growth signals while activating tumor cell death and immune pressure:
↓ Ki-67 (reduced tumor proliferation)
↑ caspase-3 (increased apoptosis / programmed tumor cell death)
↓ FOXP3+ Tregs (immunosuppressive regulatory cells tumors exploit to evade immune clearance)
↑ CD8+ cytotoxic T-cells and ↑ CD4+ T-cells infiltrating tumor tissue
Taken together, these findings suggest the combo wasn’t just slowing growth—it was pushing tumors toward cell death while making the tumor environment less immune-protected and more vulnerable to immune attack.
Conclusion
This is a compelling head-to-head preclinical comparison—but it remains a mouse study. Still, the effect size, the chemo comparator, and the immune remodeling signals make it a result worth serious attention and follow-up.
In this mouse tumor model, GSE + Vitamin C outperformed the “red devil” chemotherapy, achieving 76.61% vs. 68.82% mean tumor volume reduction, while also showing tumor marker and immune-environment changes consistent with true anti-cancer activity. And this isn’t surprising—a large body of research has documented anti-cancer mechanisms of vitamin C across multiple tumor systems, especially through oxidative stress–mediated tumor injury and immune support.
These findings strengthen the case that low-cost, biologically coherent combinations deserve serious clinical investigation.
Epidemiologist and Foundation Administrator, McCullough Foundation
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Wonderful news! Again Nature outperforms! Keep up the great work, Nicholas! Thank you!
The synergy of God's phytonutrients is clearly superior to Pharma's best and desperate attempts to become god's of medicine. Thanks Nicolas, this is where the battle needs to go to help heal the country. Well done. Love of money is the root of all pharmaceuticals. (Incidentally, in the Bible, (KJV) the Greek word originally rendered as "sorceries" is "pharmakeia"). Those "great men" using "sorceries" are punished by God because they refuse to repent from "their sorceries". In other words, the drugs they are pushing, FOR MONEY, are harming God's children, (us), and He is going to burn them up with fervent heat. Ah, gee, I hope they turn to Jesus before it's too late.