Hyperbaric Oxygen Significantly Reduces Tumour Volume in Ovarian Cancer

A landmark study provided by the Ohio State University in Columbus has just been published in the Journal of Cancer Biology &amp; Therapy and the results are consistent with the latest research validating the use of HBOT in Cancer therapy. It has already been well established that solid tumours are low in oxygen (hypoxic) and it is this factor that limits conventional therapy like chemo and radiation, and allows for resistance to congenital treatments. In this study, the addition of HBOT (90-minute sessions daily for up to 21 days at a dose of 2.0 ATA)corrected the hypoxic tumour and leading to enhancement of chemotherapeutic regimen for ovarian cancer. In addition and of extreme significance is that the application of HBOT alone caused a significant reduction in tumour size. This study confirms recent literature supporting the use of HBOT with and without conventional therapy <view study>

Hyperbaric Pressure helps improve Lung Cancer Treatment

More research is demonstrating the importance of combining hyperbaric oxygen therapy with conventional drug therapy for cancer for sensitizing the cancer cells, ultimately leading to more cancer death. Here, this study showed us that just elevating the pressure and combining a promising anticancer agent caused more destruction to the cancer cells <view study>

Hyperbaric Oxygen & Temozolomide for Glioblastoma

Temozolomide is currently being used for aggressive brain tumors, among other cancers. The effectiveness of this treatment is reduced with tumor hypoxia (low oxygen levels). Hyperbaric oxygen therapy was shown in this study to reduce tumor hypoxia and thus help to increase the effectiveness of Temozolomide against the glioma, producing a much more powerful anti-tumor activity. This research is consistent with many recent studies showing the added effectiveness of hyperbaric oxygen therapy with conventional therapies like chemotherapy, in helping to increase the effectiveness of these therapies <view study>

New Implications for Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and Colorectal Cancer

Hyperbaric oxygenation therapy is being researched for many conditions and their pathophysiological effects. In this study, the anti-inflammatory effects of HBOT showed benefits in reducing the carcinogenesis of colorectal cancer following induction. In today’s pro-inflammatory world, this could have huge impacts on reducing the rates of pathogenic inflammatory-related tumors <view study>

Ketogenic diet & hyperbaric oxygen prolongs survival in metastatic cancer

Researchers found a significant anti-cancer effect when mice with systemic metastatic cancers were exposed to the combination of a ketogenic diet alongside hyperbaric oxygenation therapy. Recently hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been receiving a lot of attention for it’s beneficial effects when combined with chemo and radiation therapy. Now, it’s being looked at how natural therapies can also be enhanced <view study>

Combined Radiation therapy and Hyperbaric therapy for Malignant tumors

Hypoxic tumors (tumors with low oxygen levels) are noted as one of the main reasons for failure to control malignant tumors with radiation therapy. Since hyperbaric oxygen improves oxygen supply to hypoxic tumors, thus increasing their levels, hyperbaric oxygen has sound clinical grounds for being used alongside radiation therapy. This study published in the International Journal of Clinical Oncology goes over the rationale for using this combination in more detail <view study>

New Roles for Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy in brain tumors

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is now being used in conjunction with both chemotherapy and radiotherapy for it’s ability to help increase the sensitivity of both treatments for malignant brain tumors. The authors go over some of the new protocols being deployed, with one of them being radiation therapy given within 15 minutes from hyperbaric exposure. This allows more oxygen into the brain, thus making the radiation therapy more effective. In addition, carboplatin-based chemotherapy combined with hyperbaric oxygen show a significant advantage in survival for recurrent malignant brain tumors <view study>

Chemotherapy drug enhanced by hyperbaric oxygen therapy

The chemotherapy drug Gemcitabine, is used for treating certain cancers, including advanced pancreatic cancer. It delivers oxygen to the tumors and thus makes the chemo drug more toxic to the targeted cancer, allowing a greater cancer killing effect. This results of this study (published in the anticancer research journal) confirmed this effect, and showed a significant enhancement of Gemcitabine’s cancer killing effect when hyperbaric oxygen therapy was applied concurrently <view study>

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy suppresses cancer growth

Low oxygen levels within tumor cells (tumor hypoxia) is a major signal for these cancer cells to produce more blood vessels (angiogenesis) and rapidly grow. Not only does that make them much more aggressive, but it also makes them much more resistant to both chemotherapy and radiation therapy. This is truly a dangerous combination and why there has been so much attention in the medical field (and with oncologists) to reduce tumor hypoxia. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is one of the most effective, and most practical, ways to alleviate tumor hypoxia.

The protocol used in this study was a high pressure protocol at 2.5 ATA for 90 minutes, with treatments performed every 3rd day. The results were extremely promising and researchers concluded, “HBOT significantly suppressed tumor growth in both the triple positive and negative tumors…&nbsp; Despite the fact that behavior and prognosis of the triple positive and negative subtypes of cancer are different, the HBOT had a similar suppressive effect on tumor growth, indicating that they share a common oxygen dependent anti-tumor mechanism. Furthermore, HBOT significantly reduced the number and area of metastatic lesions in the triple negative model.”

We have come a long way in our understanding of tumor growth, in relation to hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). Since HBOT stimulates angiogenesis (new blood vessel growth), the long-standing concern was that this mechanism may stimulate the growth of new cancer cells through the same mechanism. Over, the last 2 decades, not only has this hypothesis clearly been refuted, but solid evidence, as demonstrated in this and many other studies, are making us shift our attention toward utilizing HBOT within many current cancer treatment programs <view study>

29 year old female with stage 4 breast cancer responds successfully to combination therapy involving hyperbaric oxygen therapy

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is considered to be one of the more aggressive types of breast cancer and is typically treated with chemotherapy. Cancers like these that are able to rapidly grow and spread are a major concern and need to be treated with an equally aggressive solution.

This is why we are seeing more research and clinical trials utilizing combination therapies in order to help intensify the cytotoxic effects of chemotherapy in an aggressive measure to counteract these highly metastatic cancers.

This report followed a 29-year-old female that was put on an aggressive combination of chemotherapy, hyperthermia therapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and a ketogenic diet. The results were remarkable and “present evidence of a complete clinical, radiological, and pathological response following a six-month treatment period using this novel combination therapy in a patient with stage IV TNBC” <view study>

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy helps reduce lymphedema (breast cancer-related)

A prospective observational study was conducted on 10 patients with lymphedema (breast cancer related — BCRL). Bioimpedance spectroscopy (a relatively new diagnostic tool for evaluating the severity of the lymphedema) confirmed the benefits of Hyperbaric oxygen therapy alongside conventional therapy <view study>

Hyperbaric preconditioning and cisplatin-induced peripheral neuropathy

The results suggest that preconditioning with hyperbaric oxygen therapy can attenuate peripheral neuropathy caused by cisplatin in rats <view study>

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy protects the body

Free radical, oxidative stress, and inflammation are all common markers that are exhibited during many, if not all, pathologies and the hallmark of many chronic disease states. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been traditionally used for reducing the damaging effects of radiation therapy (RT). Since RT has been shown to cause excessive oxidative stress and inflammation, researchers took note of HBOT’s potential to reverse both of these factors involved in radiation damaged tissue <view study>

HBOT for Brain Tumors

A new study just published on Feb 2011 in the journal of cancer makes a strong argument for applying hyperbaric oxygenation therapy (HBOT) for those patients who have had either surgery or radiation therapy for brain tumors. The study followed patients who had been treated with HBOT and there was a marked improvement in cognitive function which was supported and documented by standard neuropsychological testing <view study>

HBOT highly effective treatment following Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy is a standard of care for many patients undergoing cancer treatments; however, when pelvic radiation is performed, it’s successes also can come with a debilitating side-effect where the bladder becomes inflamed leading to a painful and bleeding condition called hemorrhagic cystitis (HS). This is a very difficult condition to treat. Promising new research, just published in March 2011, is now giving hope for these sufferers. This study clearly demonstrates successful therapy with long-term follow up when patients were treated with hyperbaric oxygenation therapy. Here, a standard program of just 40 hyperbaric sessions were given to 25 patients who were diagnosed with HS. More importantly, all patients had already failed conventional therapy. So get ready for the results–ALL 25 PATIENTS IMPROVED AND WERE SUCCESSFULLY TREATED. Furthermore, after close to 2 year follow up, no regressions were shown. The results of this study are truly remarkable and makes for a strong argument to add hyperabric oxygenation therapy to standard of care and a primary treatment option for those with HS. The authors of the study support this previous statement by adding in the fact that hyperbaric oxygen is highly effective and safe, non-invasive therapy for HC secondary to pelvic radiation <view study>

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Chronic Radiaton Injury

Virgina Mason Hospital’s hyperbaric unit has pulled together a report which documents 411 of their patients who took course in HBOT following radiation therapy, for the diagnosis of chronic radiation-induced tissue damage. The results were quite dramatic. For example, a positive outcome from hyperbaric treatment occurred in 94% of patients with osteoradionecrosis of the jaw. Hopefully, this will encourage the medical community to make stronger recommendations for hyperbaric therapy <view study>

A case report demonstrating the powerful effects of Hyperbaric oxygen

A 74 year old female was treated for breast cancer with radiation therapy. 13 years later, she noticed a small ulcer, and in another 12 years, she was diagnosed with late onset radiation-induced skin ulcer (a total of 25 years) and prescribed hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). After 1 year and 100 HBOT sessions, she made a full recovery! <view study>

Survival outcomes of metabolically supported chemotherapy combined with ketogenic diet, hyperthermia, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy in advanced gastric cancer

The combination of metabolically supported chemotherapy, together with a ketogenic diet, hyperthermia and HBOT, appears to be promising in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer. <view study>

The effect of hyperbaric oxygen treatment on late radiation tissue injury after breast cancer

“In this case-series, 67 patients who underwent HBOT for late radiation tissue injury after breast cancer reported significant improvement in pain, fibrosis, edema, and shoulder movement. The improvement persisted up to 12 months after HBOT” <view study>

2.0 ATA treatment protocol for radiation-induced cystitis

Hyperbaric protocols can vary in dosages, based on both pressure and time. Higher-pressure protocols are typically used in hospitals and wound care centers for radiation induced damage. These pressure protocols range from 2.0 to 2.4 ATA. This study shows that 2.0 ATA (120 minutes) was equally as effective as 2.4 ATA (90 minutes) for treating radiation-induced cystitis <view study>