Oxygen therapy trial for cancer patients
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves sitting in a sealed chamber and breathing pure oxygen while the air pressure is slowly increased. The treatment is used to tackle decompression sickness in divers, and to help injured elite footballers heal more quickly.
Doctors hope it will also alleviate unpleasant side-effects associated withradiotherapy for cancer in the pelvic region.
Pelvic cancers include those of the cervix, the ovaries, the prostate, the testicles, the bowel, the bladder and womb.
Most patients return to normal within a few weeks of stopping radiotherapy but about 30% develop long-term problems, including diarrhoea, stomach cramps and frequent bowel movements.
The HOT (hyperbaric oxygen therapy) II trial will take place at specialist centres in Britain and involve 75 patients.
Professor John Yarnold, from the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden Hospital, one of the scientists leading the trial, said: “We hope to answer once and for all whether hyperbaric oxygen therapy will improve their quality of life.”
