Injections of a common household disinfectant may help make radiation therapy more effective against some types of breast cancer.
Hydrogen peroxide creates a toxic environment for cancer cells. The injections, which are given directly into the tumor, weaken the cells, making them more vulnerable to radiation therapy.
The peroxide is combined with sodium hyaluronate (used in skin care and to treat stiff knee joints) and this forms a viscous gel that ensures the slow release of the peroxide over 48 hours, to give it time to take effect.
Early studies involving breast cancer patients in Japan found that giving injections, called Kochi Oxydol Radiation Therapy for Unresectable Carcinoma (KORTUC), along with radiation therapy, was more successful in shrinking tumors. In one study, published in Molecular and Clinical Oncology in 2021, giving injections along with radiation therapy caused breast tumors to shrink by an average of 97 percent, or three times the success rate of radiation therapy alone.
The injections will now be tested in a UK trial in women with large tumors or those whose disease has spread beyond the breast.
Breast cancer patients usually receive radiation therapy after surgery to reduce the risk of the cancer coming back, but the larger the tumor, the worse the success rate.
The injections will be tested in a UK trial in women with large tumors or those whose disease has spread beyond the breast.
While we know it best as a cleaning agent and for its use in antiseptic wipes, hydrogen peroxide is produced by every cell in the body and has a variety of functions.
It is also offered to patients with breast cancer that has spread, when it does not cure the disease but can prolong survival.
Now a trial involving 184 breast cancer patients at six UK hospitals, including the Royal Marsden NHS Trust in London, will judge the effectiveness of the injection in women with larger tumors of more than 3cm and in those that the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes. Half of the patients will receive the injections plus radiation therapy; the others will receive only radiotherapy.
An earlier study at Royal Marsden, involving 12 women with breast tumors that were surgically inoperable, showed that the injections helped control tumor growth for up to two years. The women received injections twice a week (the procedure lasts 15 minutes and is performed under local anesthesia) for three weeks before radiation therapy.
Dr Navita Somaiah, a clinical oncologist at Royal Marsden, says the treatment could be used for “multiple types of cancer”.
Results of the study, published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics in 2020, showed that in women who had not responded to other treatments, injections and radiation therapy helped control tumor growth for 12 to 24 months .
“Hydrogen peroxide is a cheap, well-known and readily available compound, and our studies show it could increase the effectiveness of radiotherapy,” says Dr Navita Somaiah, a clinical oncologist at the Royal Marsden.
“Our hope is that the use of this solution will mean that many breast cancer patients can receive more effective treatment or even open up new options.”
She says the treatment could be used for “multiple types of cancer.”
While we know it best as a cleaning agent and for its use in antiseptic wipes to clean wounds, hydrogen peroxide is produced by all cells in the body and has a variety of functions, including acting as a messenger between cells. The enzyme catalase breaks it down in the body into oxygen and water.
The injection solution, at 0.5 percent, is much weaker than the hydrogen peroxide used, for example, in antiseptic wipes.
When this solution breaks down in the body, it creates an oxygen-rich environment which in turn stresses and weakens cancer cells, making them more vulnerable to radiation therapy (cancer cells have evolved to thrive in low-oxygen environments because the network of blood vessels blood vessels that provide them with oxygen often cannot keep up with their growth rate).
KORTUC was invented by Professor Yasuhiro Ogawa, Professor Emeritus at Kochi University in Japan, in 2006 and was originally developed for advanced breast cancer, but has since been tested in other types of advanced cancer, such as cervical cancer. .
A 2023 study in Oncology Letters, involving 14 women with recurrent cervical cancer, found that KORTUC, given two hours before interstitial brachytherapy, a form of radiation therapy delivered as radioactive beads placed inside the tumor, improved the prognosis of the patients.
The tumor did not increase in size in 79 percent of patients who underwent the combination regimen, compared with 63 percent who received radiation therapy alone.
Reported side effects of KORTUC have so far been limited to discomfort at the injection site for up to 24 hours. However, Professor Karol Sikora, a London-based clinical oncologist, is cautious.
He told Good Health: ‘So far we’ve only seen one preliminary study and there were only 12 patients in it. There are many good ideas, but much more work is needed to study the dose response and the possibility of unpleasant side effects. The next test results are needed before anyone gets excited.’