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It's the delivery method that is the difference, not just the dose. Vitamin C IV is pro-oxidant (promotes damage to mitochondria (cancers have famously messed up mitochondria already), etc) whereas Vitamin C that passes through the gut is anti-oxidant.

https://www.cancer.gov/research/key-initiatives/ras/ras-cent...

Ah yes! That's one I was looking to link. Specifically Mark Levine's work. i.e. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15068981/

I've read that vitamin C over 500mg even oral causes mitochondrial damage.

This kinda makes sense. Cancer cells are under severe oxidative pressure, and vitamin C in reasonable doses is an anti-oxidant.

But in _very_ high doses another mechanism kicks in, and the vitamin C causes generation of reactive oxygen species: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7285147/

What do you mean by "improving" cancer?