Catalytic therapy of cancer with porphyrins and ascorbate.

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA. rozanovan@hotmail.com Abstract Catalytic therapy (CT) is a cancer treatment modality based on the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) using a combination of substrate molecules and a catalyst. In addition, the number of cells accumulating in the sub G0/G1 stage of the cell cycle increased from 3- to 10-fold, potentially reflecting that the treatment was highly effective in inducing DNA damage in the tumor cells, suggesting that porphyrins may be beneficial as a CT catalyst in the treatment of cancer.