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Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy suppresses Cancer growth:
Low levels within tumour cells (tumour hypoxia) is a major signal for these cancer cells to produce more blood vessels (angiogenesis) and rapidly glow. 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 tumour hypoxia.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is one of the most effective, and most practical, ways to alleviate tumour hypoxia. The results are extremely promising and researchers concluded 'HBOT significantly suppressed tumour growth in both the triple positive and negative tumours."
Despite the fact that behaviour and prognosis of the triple positive and negative subtypes of cancer are different, the HBOT had a similar suppressive effect on tumour growth, indicating that they share a common oxygen dependant anti-tumour mechanism. Furthermore, HBOT significantly reduced the number and area of metazoic lesions in the triple negative model."
We have come a long way in our understanding of tumour growth, in relation to 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 past 2 decades, not only has this hypothesis clearly been refuted, but solid evidence as demonstrated in many studies, are making us shift our attention towards utilising HBOT with many current cancer treatment programmes.