What Researchers Did
Turkish researchers reviewed records of 45 cancer patients who received a median of 27 HBOT sessions for treatment-related complications, tracking cancer recurrence, spread, and death over an average follow-up of 783 days.
What They Found
Only 8.7% of patients experienced cancer recurrence during follow-up, and 59.5% had no recurrence. There was no statistically significant link between the number of HBOT sessions and cancer spread (p = 0.213) or death (p = 0.881). No HBOT-related complications occurred during treatment.
What This Means for Canadian Patients
A common concern among Canadian cancer patients and their doctors is whether HBOT could feed tumor growth. This study found no evidence of that, suggesting HBOT is safe to use in patients with solid tumors who need it for radiation injuries or surgical wound complications.
Canadian Relevance
Delayed radiation injury is an OHIP-covered indication for HBOT in Ontario. The safety data in this study directly addresses concerns that may prevent referrals for cancer patients with radiation complications.
Study Limitations
The study was small (45 patients), retrospective, and lacked a matched control group, so it cannot rule out selection bias in which patients were chosen to receive HBOT.