A randomized study of hyperbaric oxygen as an adjunct to regularly fractionated radiation therapy for clinical treatment of advanced neoplastic disease.

In order to more comprehensively evaluate the potential of the oxygen effect in patients with advanced neoplastic disease of the head and neck, cervix, bladder, rectum, esophagus and brain, a randomized series was designed to test the efficacy of hyperbaric oxygen as an adjunct to radiation therapy as compared to radiation therapy alone. One-half of the patients admitted to this study of the theoretic potentials of hyperbaric oxygen received 100 per cent oxygen under 3 atmospheres absolute pressure as an adjunct to regularly fractionated daily radiation therapy. The other half received daily radiation therapy alone.This study was terminated prematurely by accidental explosive decompression and destruction of the chamber on the 52nd patient admitted to the series.Twelve of the original 52 patients remain at risk, 27 to 36 months. These patients are equally divided between the 2 modalities.There were no significant differences in survival noted in any of the anatomic areas of advanced neoplasms in the rando...