Oral vitamin C supplementation to patients with myeloid cancer on azacitidine treatment: Normalization of plasma vitamin C induces epigenetic changes

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of patients randomized for vitamin C (500 mg) or placebo supplement

Patients	All	Vitamin C	Placebo
Number	20	10	10
Sex (men/women)	14/6	9/1	5/5
Age at inclusion (years)	73 (57–84)	76 (70–84)	70 (57–84)
Diagnosis
MDS	9	5	4
AML	7	2	5
CMML	4	3	1
DNMTi treatment before inclusion (cycles)
0	11	5	6
1	3	1	2
2	3	2	1
3	1	1	0
4–7	2	1	1
IPSS-R score	5 (3.5–6.5)	4.5 (4–5.5)	5.5 (3.5–6.5)
Haemoglobin, g/dL	9.6 (7.1–14)	9.4 (7.1–14)	9.9 (7.6–12)
No. of blood transfusions in the study period	7 (0–33)	10 (0–33)	1 (0–18)
TET2 mutation, % of all (yes/no)	35% (7/13)	40% (4/6)	30% (3/7)
DNMT3A mutation, % of all (yes/no)	25% (5/15)	30% (3/7)	20% (2/8)
IDH2 mutation, % of all (yes/no)	10% (2/18)	20% (2/8)	0% (0/10)
Vitamin C, μmol/L^a	21 (5–73)	14 (5–37)	27 (7–73)
Iron, μmol/L^a	17 (2–33)	18 (2–33)	16 (5–32)
Transferrin, mg/dL^a	184 (116–257)	169 (116–237)	199 (148–257)
Ferritin level, μg/L^a	1624 (95–6244)	1993 (444–6244)	1254 (95–3632)

Data are given as mean (range) except for IPSS-R score and blood transfusions, which are given as median (range). There were no statistically significant differences between groups. No patients had mutations in IDH1
MDS myelodysplastic syndrome, AML acute myeloid leukaemia, CMML chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia, DNMTi DNA methyltransferase inhibitor, IPSS-R Revised International Prognostic Scoring System (at the date of diagnosis for MDS and AML patients with < 30% bone marrow blasts)
^aPlasma concentration at baseline