有研究表明,碘乙酸具有抗腫瘤效果。2002年,生物化學家F. A. Fahim報告稱,「與正常對照組相比,對腫瘤小鼠的單次碘乙酸治療,能明顯提高血清乳酸脫氫酶(LDH)的活性水平,同時可顯著降低血糖和肝臟總蛋白、RNA和DNA的濃度」[5]。1975年,有報道稱,碘乙酸可能改善骨髓的免疫應答[6]。1966年,有研究指出,碘乙酸鹽能用於誘導腫瘤細胞的腫瘤免疫[註 1]治療[7]。
Dippy, J. F. J.; Hughes, S. R. C.; Rozanski, A. The dissociation constants of some symmetrically disubstituted succinic acids. Journal of the Chemical Society. 1959: 2492–2498.
Polgár, L. Deuterium isotope effects on papain acylation. Evidence for lack of general base catalysis and for enzyme-leaving group interaction. European Journal of Biochemistry. 1979, 98 (2): 369–374. PMID 488108. doi:10.1111/j.1432-1033.1979.tb13196.x.
Fahim, F. A.; Esmat, A. Y.; Mady, E. A.; Ibrahim, E. K. Antitumor Activities of Iodoacetate and Dimethylsulphoxide Against Solid Ehrlich Carcinoma Growth in Mice. Biological Research. 2003, 36 (2): 253–262. PMID 14513720. doi:10.4067/S0716-97602003000200015.
Plewa, Michael J.; Wagner, Elizabeth D.; Richardson, Susan D.; Thruston, Alfred D., Jr.; Woo, Yin-Tak; McKague, A. Bruce. Chemical and Biological Characterization of Newly Discovered Iodoacid Drinking Water Disinfection Byproducts. Environmental Science & Technology. 2004, 38 (18): 4713–4722. Bibcode:2004EnST...38.4713P. PMID 15487777. doi:10.1021/es049971v.
Richardson, Susan D.; Plewa, Michael J.; Wagner, Elizabeth D.; Shoeny, Rita; DeMarini, David M. Occurrence, genotoxicity, and carcinogenicity of regulated and emerging disinfection by-products in drinking water: A review and roadmap for research. Mutation Research. 2007, 636 (1–3): 178–242. PMID 17980649. doi:10.1016/j.mrrev.2007.09.001.