This is part 2 of 4 of an examination of the final years of Linus Pauling’s life.
In February 1992, Linus Pauling announced publicly that he had cancer. His critics responded with sentiments that were, at times, distinctly unsympathetic. In their view, since Pauling had been advocating vitamin C as a preventative treatment for cancer for years, his diagnosis undermined those decades of work. Pauling retorted that most elderly men develop hyperplasia or cancer in their prostates, often by age 70. Pauling believed it was quite likely, although not provable, that his high intake of vitamin C delayed the inevitable by decades.