How injections of common household disinfectant can make cancer therapy work better: It’s an incredible breakthrough, reveals THEA JORDAN… and now it’s being tested here

Injections of a common household disinfectant can make radiotherapy more effective against some forms 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 radiotherapy.

The peroxide is combined with sodium hyaluronate (used in skin care and to treat stiff knee joints) to form a viscous gel that provides a slow release of the peroxide over 48 hours, giving it time to work.

Early studies in breast cancer patients in Japan found that giving the injections, called Kochi Oxydol Radiation Therapy for Unoperable Carcinoma (KORTUC), in addition to radiotherapy made it more successful at shrinking tumors. One study, published in Molecular and Clinical Oncology in 2021, found that giving the injections in addition to radiotherapy resulted in breast tumors shrinking by an average of 97 percent – ​​that’s three times the success rate of radiotherapy alone.

Now the jabs will be tested in a British trial in women with large tumors or in women whose disease has spread beyond the breast.

Breast cancer patients often receive radiation therapy after surgery to reduce the risk of the cancer returning, but the larger the tumor, the poorer the success rate.

Although 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 range 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 British hospitals, including the Royal Marsden NHS Trust in London, will assess the effectiveness of the shot in women with larger tumors of more than 3cm and where the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes. Half of the patients receive the injections plus radiotherapy; the others only receive radiotherapy.

An earlier study at Royal Marsden, involving 12 women with surgically inoperable breast tumors, found that the injections helped control tumor growth for up to two years. The women received injections twice a week for three weeks before radiotherapy (the procedure takes 15 minutes and is done under local anesthesia).

Dr. Navita Somaiah, a clinical oncologist at Royal Marsden, says the treatment can be used for ‘multiple types of cancer’

The 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, the injections and radiotherapy helped suppress the growth of a tumor for 12 to 24 months to keep control.

‘Hydrogen peroxide is a cheap, well-understood and readily available compound, and our studies show it could increase the effectiveness of radiotherapy,’ says Dr Navita Somaiah, a clinical oncologist at Royal Marsden.

“Our hope is that using this solution will help many breast cancer patients receive more effective treatment, or even open up new options.”

She says the treatment can be used for “multiple types of cancer.”

Although we know it best as a cleaning agent and for its use in antiseptic wipes to clean wounds, hydrogen peroxide is produced by every cell in the body and has a range of functions, including acting as a messenger between cells. It is broken down in the body into oxygen and water by the enzyme catalase.

At 0.5 percent, the solution in the injections is much weaker than the hydrogen peroxide used in antiseptic wipes, for example.

When this solution breaks down in the body, it creates an oxygen-rich environment which in turn stresses and weakens the cancer cells, making them more vulnerable to radiotherapy (cancer cells have evolved to thrive in a low-oxygen environment because the network of blood vessels that carry oxygen to them often cannot keep up with their growth rate).

Invented in 2006 by Professor Yasuhiro Ogawa, professor emeritus at Kochi University in Japan, KORTUC was originally developed for advanced breast cancer, but has since been tested on other forms 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 radiotherapy delivered as radioactive pellets placed in the tumor, improved the prognosis for patients.

The tumor did not grow in 79 percent of patients who underwent the combination regimen, while 63 percent received radiotherapy alone.

The 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 clinical oncologist based in London, is cautious.

He told Good Health: ‘We have only seen a preliminary study so far and only twelve patients took part. There are many good ideas, but much more work is needed to study dose response and the potential for unpleasant side effects. The upcoming trial results are needed before anyone gets excited.”