Oxygen Therapies/ Hyperoxygenation Therapy/ Oxymedicine/ Bio-Oxidative Therapy/ Oxidative Therapy/ Oxidiology
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)
"Oxygen therapy can destroy cells, including those of the blood-forming organs. Very high doses can seriously damage health or even cause death." (Ontario)
Description/ Source/ Components
"Oxygen therapy is based on the premise that cancer cells have different metabolic properties than normal cells. They thrive in a low-oxygen environment." (Ontario)
Ozone (O3) and Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) are two popular agents used.
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)
"Oxygen therapy has been used extensively in Europe for over 50 years. In Germany, it has been commonly used as an adjunct to conventional cancer treatments." (Ontario)
"The use of oxidizing agents has been reported at clinics in Mexico and Germany." (U.S. Congress)
Proponent/ Advocate Claims
"Advocates of oxygen therapy believe that disease is caused by micro-organisms that thrive in low-oxygen environments. The micro-organisms are said to thrive because they are less complex in terms of evolutionary development than normal body cells are, and therefore they require less oxygen. Lacking adequate oxygen, micro-organisms in body tissues are thought to be able to spread and cause disease. These micro-organisms are implicated in heart disease, cancer and arthritis, among other illnesses." (Cassileth)
"Warburg insisted until his death in 1970 that the cause of cancer was 'inferior' energy of anaerobic metabolism." (Green)
Proponents believe that "oxygen promotes a healthy, oxygen-based metabolism which is unsuitable for cancer cell growth." (Ontario)
Professional Evaluation/ Critique
"Researchers now understand that cancer cells' lower-than-normal respiration is due to the fact that tissue surrounding cancer cells receives less oxygen because it has fewer blood vessels feeding it. Oxygen therapies have not been found useful against cancer and are not used as mainstream cancer treatments." (Cassileth)
The total amount of oxygen that could be dissolved in all of the plasma in a 60-kg adult would be about 20 ml. "Since there is no physiologic mechanism by which oxygen dissolved in the plasma can be extracted, and since tissues require 200 to 250 ml of oxygen per minute, the 20 ml of oxygen dissolved in the plasma can be of little use in relieving tissue hypoxia [reduction of oxygen supply to tissue] or for supporting aerobic energy metabolism." (Green)
In a 1961 monograph, Aisenberg reviewed and analyzed the subject of energy metabolism in normal and tumor tissues. He concluded that most carcinogens are not respiratory poisons; most respiratory poisons are not carcinogens; oxygen neither prevents nor inhibits cancer growth; tumor cells grow optimally in tissue culture dishes in atmosphere containing 20% oxygen; tumors grow rapidly in tissues that are well supplied with oxygenated blood; absence of oxygen does not stimulate tumor growth in vitro [in an artificial environment] or in vivo [in a living body]; agents effective against cancer interfere with DNA syntheses, not with aerobic metabolism; tumors do not get a significant amount of their energy from anaerobic metabolism; tumors can and do produce energy by an oxygen-driven metabolism of fats and carbohydrates. ... Although Warburg discovered some differences in metabolism between normal and cancer cells, research did not bear out what he considered to be the `primary cause of cancer,' i.e., the replacement of respiration by fermentation." (Green)
Costs
"The cost is approximately $85 for each intravenous treatment. The length of treatment depends on the condition of the patient." (Ontario, 1994)
References
Cassileth BR. Alternative medicine handbook: a complete reference guide to alternative and complementary therapies. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1998:194-96.
Green S. Oxygenation therapy: unproven treatments for cancer and AIDS. Sci Rev Alt Med 1998;2:6-12.
Ontario Breast Cancer Information Exchange Project. Guide to unconventional cancer therapies. 1st ed. Toronto: Ontario Breast Cancer Information Exchange Project, 1994:242-247.
U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment. Unconventional cancer treatments. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office 1990 Sept:114.
Revised February 2000