High-dose vitamin C versus placebo in the treatment of patients with advanced cancer who have had no prior chemotherapy. A randomized double-blind comparison

A second Mayo Clinic randomized, double-blind trial, this time restricted to chemotherapy-naive advanced-cancer patients (addressing Pauling's objection that the 1979 trial patients had been 'immunosuppressed' by prior chemotherapy). No patient had measurable tumor shrinkage; the vitamin C group's disease progressed at the same rate as the placebo group, and there was no survival benefit -- per the Science History Institute's 2025 summary (sciencehistory-pauling-vitamin-c-crusade-2025), placebo patients in this trial in fact had slightly more long-term survivors than the vitamin C group. PMID resolved directly on PubMed; title, authors (Moertel, Fleming, Creagan, Rubin, O'Connell, Ames), journal, volume/issue/pages all match.