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. 2012;7(11):e48432.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0048432. Epub 2012 Nov 7.

Re-evaluate the effect of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in cancer - a preclinical therapeutic small animal model study

Sneha Pande  1 , Amit Sengupta, Anurag Srivastava, Rajiv P Gude, Arvind Ingle
Affiliations

Re-evaluate the effect of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in cancer - a preclinical therapeutic small animal model study

Sneha Pande et al. PLoS One. 2012.

Abstract

Tumor hypoxia is a known driver of angiogenesis that also facilitates tumor growth. Moreover, poorly oxygenated central tumor area remains relatively radio or chemo resistant. HBO therapy is known to elevate the levels of dissolved oxygen and eliminates tumor hypoxia. It has been one of the modalities in cancer treatment; therefore its optimization is important. In this experimental study, no cancer enhancing effect was seen during the course of HBO therapy; however, post therapy there was an accelerated growth and progression of tumor. HBO treated mice lived shorter and the response to therapy was dose & tumor volume dependent. HBO therapy probably exert its effect on the cancer proliferating cells through multiple pathways such as increased DNA damage, apoptosis & geno-toxicity leading to slow cancer progression while post therapy tumorigenic effect could be due to impaired DNA repair mechanism, mutagenic effect & aneuploidy as well as altered blood supply & nutrients. Tumor growth reached plateau with time and this finding validated theoretical model predicting tumor reaching an asymptotic limit. While, marked asymmetry observed in tumor volume progression or cancer cell proliferation rate in each of the experimental C3H mouse suggested a need for an alternate small animal pre-clinical cancer therapeutic model.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Graphical representation of latency period for tumor appearance.
Figure 2
Figure 2. (A) Graphical representation of control mice (30 days follow up); (Anisometric growth in each mouse).
(B) Graphical representation of C3H mice treated with HBO at 1.1 bar (1 week Vs 3 weeks: Growth suppression during therapy). (C) Graphical representation of HBO treated mice at 1.2 bar (during therapy). (C [ii]) Growth retardation during HBO therapy (single plot). (D) Comparative trend of tumor progression of control and HBO treated C3H mice. (Black for HBO; Red for control).
Figure 3
Figure 3. Growth pattern w.r.t the initial tumor volume.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Validating theoretical model-prediction (control) - initial rapid growth.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Validating theoretical model-predictive (HBO) - slow growth during therapy – Using Experimental Data from graph 2D.
Figure 6
Figure 6. Tumor growth progression (Geometric Progression-Theoretical model).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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