The role of your cancer health professional is to create an environment of openness and trust, and to help in making informed decisions about alternative/ complementary therapies. Collaboration will improve the safe integration of all therapies during your experience with cancer. The "Summary" and "Professional Evaluation/ Critique" sections of this Unconventional Therapies manual are cited directly from the medical literature, and are intended to help in the objective evaluation of alternative/ complementary therapies.
Summary
"Patients with cancer should not consider oxygen therapies as either alternative (first-line) or adjunct (complementary) therapies." (Cassileth)
"After studying the literature and other available information, the American Cancer Society has found no evidence that treatment with hydrogen peroxide or other 'hyperoxygenating' compounds is safe or results in objective benefit in the treatment of cancer. Lacking such evidence, the American Cancer Society strongly urges individuals with cancer not to seek such treatment." (CA)
Description/ Source/ Components
"Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is composed of two atoms of oxygen and two atoms of hydrogen. It is formed when water reacts with a single atom of oxygen... Most hydrogen peroxide treatments involve injection of diluted solutions of hydrogen peroxide in doses given over a period of one to several weeks." (Cassileth)
"Hydrogen peroxide is unstable and decomposes violently when in direct contact with tough surfaces or traces of organic or particulate matter. Light, agitation, heating, or chemical substances like carbonates, proteins, chlorides, charcoal, and iron all accelerate the rate of hydrogen peroxide decomposition in solution. One volume of 30% hydrogen-peroxide solution will yield 100 volumes of oxygen gas when it decomposes." (Green)
Kurt Donsbach runs Hospital Santa Monica, which uses hydrogen peroxide on patients. "Clinic literature states that hydrogen peroxide is administered intravenously, orally, in ear drops, as a nasal spray, as a tooth gel, as breath drops, and via enemas." (Barrett)
"Some promoters claim that the 3%-H2O2 product available in pharmacies is contaminated, so they recommend either reagent-grade (30%) or the 35% variety most commonly sold in health food stores. Proponents refer to the 35% version as 'food-grade peroxide', although this is not a scientifically recognized term." (CA)
History
The claims of oxygenation promoters are based on the concepts of William F. Koch (1885-1962) and Otto Warburg (1883-1970). (Green)
"William F. Koch, a Detroit physician, theorized in 1919 that cancer was caused by a metabolic defect brought on by a single toxin produced by an injury or irritation. He proposed that toxins produced during metabolism and by bacteria were normally burned off during oxidation of carbohydrates. If the toxins persisted, they damaged the toxin-burning system and converted a normally present 'harmless germ' into a virulent cancer-causing one." (Green)
"A major theoretical foundation for oxygen therapy is the work of Otto Warburg, M.D., winner of the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1931 (for elucidating the chemistry of cell respiration). Warburg observed that cancer cells have lower respiration rates than normal cells. He postulated that cancer cells therefore grow better in a low-oxygen environment, and that introducing higher oxygen levels could retard their growth or kill them." (Cassileth)
"Recent efforts to popularize hydrogen peroxide as an 'alternative therapy' are due largely to the activity of Father Richard Wilhelm, a retired high school teacher and former Army chaplain... Father Wilhelm claims to have discovered the healing potential of H2O2 through acquaintance with Edward Carl Rosenow, MD, a physician who headed the Mayo Clinic's division of experimental bacteriology from 1915 until 1944, when he retired. Dr. Rosenow's papers, however, contain no evidence that he promoted the internal use of hydrogen peroxide for the control of cancer, arthritis, or any other degenerative disease." (CA)
"Other active promoters of hydrogen peroxide therapy are Kurt Donsbach, PhD, Walter Grotz, George Borell, Ed McCabe, and Charles Farr, MD, PhD." (CA)
Proponent/ Advocate Claims
"Hydrogen peroxide will split into a molecule of water (which consists of two hydrogen atoms plus an oxygen atom) and one atom of oxygen. This single oxygen atom, according to oxygen therapy advocates, provide oxygen that the body uses both to prevent diseases from starting and to fight diseases already present in the body." (Cassileth)
"They claim that toxins that adulterate processed foods, the environment, and medications damage the oxidative metabolism of normal cells which then regress into anaerobic metabolism in which an inferior energy is produced, resulting in cancer." (Green)
"Donsbach claims that injected peroxide will boost blood oxygen levels which, in turn, kill cancer cells." (Barrett)
Promoters believe that hydrogen peroxide "kills cancer cells by supplying more oxygen than they can tolerate." Some also claim that "soaking an affected body part in peroxide can cause tumors to separate from the body so that they can be 'wiped away' and that drinking H2O2 can reduce the size of throat tumors." (CA)
Professional Evaluation/ Critique
"Hydrogen peroxide does participate in the bactericidal processes within activated phagocyte cells. But when it escapes from the cells into the adjacent extracellular space during the inflammatory process, it becomes a major contributor to the tissue damage seen in lung disease, malignancies, and hemolysis. The presence of pharmacological concentrations of hydrogen peroxide in the blood is clearly a double-edged sword which can easily cause as much harm as it can cause good." (Green)
"The amount of oxygen contained in the few cubic centimeters of peroxide included in Donsbach's 4-hour intravenous infusions is less than the amount in a single deep breath of air." (Barrett)
"Oral hydrogen peroxide would automatically be ineffective since all of the hydrogen peroxide would be eliminated in the stomach forming water and inert gaseous oxygen which would then be lost in burping or passing flatus. No effect would occur in the body." (Personal)
"In 1988, the U.S. Postal Service issued Donsbach a cease and desist order to stop him from claiming that the hydrogen peroxide used orally or intravenously is effective against cancer or arthritis, or that it is fit for human consumption." (U.S. Congress)
Hydrogen peroxide is a treatment provided by the Bio-Genesis Clinic in Mexico. However, "instead of presenting the public with sound, verifiable, scientific research and conclusions, clinics such as Bio-Genesis seem to rely more heavily on testimonials from former patients as their proof." (DuBois)
Toxicity/ Risks
"Hydrogen peroxide can be harmful, causing toxic reactions if taken internally in excessive amounts or as an undiluted preparation." (Cassileth)
"A continuous infusion of peroxide that results in 0.01 volume per 100 ml blood can cause an arterial gas embolism [sudden blocking of an artery] and irreversible lung damage. That such adverse reactions do occur is clear from reports in the medical literature. These incidents include: oxygen gas emboli, necrosis [the sum of the morphological changes indicative of cell death], and gangrene following peroxide enemas or colonic lavage [washing out of the colon]; emphysema [accumulation of air in tissues or organs] following peroxide mouthwash or gargle; and ulcerative colitis [inflammation of the colon], gas embolism, and emphysema following deep wound irrigation. Peroxide ingestion results in respiratory arrest, seizures, gas embolism in the portal circulation, shock, and acute hemolysis [disruption of red blood cell membrane causing release of hemoglobin]. Stroke and multiple cerebral infarcts and venous embolism follow irrigation of anal fistula [one opening on the cutaneous surface of the anus] and irrigation of surgical wounds." (Green)
"H2O2 must be diluted sufficiently or it may cause chemical burns. H2O2 often cause nausea when taken orally." (Ontario)
"Thirty-five percent hydrogen peroxide is commercially available as an oxidant and disinfectant. This solution is currently sold and promoted in health food stores in th United States as a means of 'improving oxygenation' in people with coronary artery disease and other health problems. Our findings show the high toxicity of concentrated hydrogen peroxide. CNS [central nervous system] damage and death are likely consequences after ingestion of this agent." (Ashdown)
"Promoters of hydrogen peroxide tend to downplay its potential for harm... In fact, however, during the past three years, six children have been seriously poisoned and one died as a result of accidentally drinking the concentrated solution stored in their refrigerator. The product in the fatal case had been obtained by mail order as an alternative medicine. A near-fatal case of ingestion by an adult also has been reported." (CA)
"The present study clearly demonstrates that H2O2 acts as a carcinogen. Reactive oxygen intermediates have been reported to induce single-strand breaks in cellular DNA, oxidation of DNA bases, chromosomal aberrations, and DNA-protein cross-links." (Okamoto)
Costs
Dr. Paul V. Beals charges $75 US for each hydrogen peroxide IV treatment. (Fink, 1997)
References
Ashdown BC, et al. Hydrogen peroxide poisoning causing brain infarction: neuroimaging findings. American Journal of Roentgenology 1998;170:1653-5.
Barrett S, Cassileth BR, editors. Dubious cancer treatment. Tampa, Florida: American Cancer Society, Florida Division, 1991:60-61.
CA (Anonymous). Questionable methods of cancer management: hydrogen peroxide and other 'hyperoxygenation' therapies. CA: a Cancer Journal for Clinicians 1993;43:47-56.
Cassileth BR. Alternative medicine handbook: a complete reference guide to alternative and complementary therapies. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1998:194-96.
DuBois E. Distinctively dubious. Journal-Press, Buffalo, Mn. 1986 Sept. 18:4A.
Fink JM. Third opinion: an international directory to alternative therapy centers for the treatment and prevention of cancer and other degenerative diseases. 3rd ed. Garden City Park, New York: Avery Publishing Group Inc., 1997:36-37.
Green S. Oxygenation therapy: unproven treatments for cancer and AIDS. Sci Rev Alt Med 1998;2:6-12.
Okamoto M, et al. Transformation in vitro of a nontumorigenic rat urothelial cell line by hydrogen peroxide. Cancer Research 1996;56:4649-53.
Ontario Breast Cancer Information Exchange Project. Guide to unconventional cancer therapies. 1st ed. Toronto: Ontario Breast Cancer Information Exchange Project, 1994:242-247.
Personal communication to BC Cancer Agency Cancer Information Centre. (BCCA Cancer Information Centre search file 1121G)
U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment. Unconventional cancer treatments. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office 1990 Sept:114.
Revised February 2000