Ascorbic acid and colon cancer: an oxidative stimulus to cell death depending on cell profile.

Colorectal cancer is a major health problem worldwide with urgent need for new and effective anti-cancer approaches that allow treating, increasing survival and improving life quality of patients. At pharmacological concentrations, ascorbic acid (AA) exerts a selective cytotoxic effect, whose mechanism of cytotoxicity remains unsolved. It has been suggested that it depends on the production of extracellular hydrogen peroxide, using ascorbate radical as an intermediate.