Does ozone really “cure” cancer?

Dear Sir,

I would like to make a few comments on Ref. 1. The authors have shown that in 3-kg rabbits, implanted with VX2 carcinoma HNSCC tumor cells, the intraperitoneal injection for 5 consecutive days of 240 ml of a gas mixture composed of oxygen–ozone (97.5%:2.5%), with an ozone dose equivalent to 12.0 mg (50 mcg/ml × 80 ml × 3 kg) has been able to “cure” 6 of the 14 rabbits. In the animal group, treated with oxygen alone, only 2 rabbits were “cured.” These results are interesting but they should not raise an excessive optimism because experimental tumors, implanted only 2 weeks before, are likely to be eliminated by the still intact immune system of healthy animals. Regretfully the authors did not report our results,2–4 which have demonstrated that human blood treated ex vivo with appropriate ozone doses elicit the synthesis of several proinflammatory cytokines. Consequently, it can be expected that the injection of ozone in the peritoneal cavity activates resident macrophages and polimorphonuclear cells, so that an immune-mediated reaction ensues in some rabbits with prompt tumor rejection. This explanation is likely because a successive tumor challenge did not take place in nonimmunosuppressed rabbits.

Having worked on this topic for the past 18 years, we have clarified the chemical steps of the ozone reaction with biological fluids. In fact, ozone readily dissolves in the fluid and, by reacting with unsaturated fatty acids and antioxidants, generates, within seconds, hydrogen peroxide and a variety of peroxidation compounds. Hydrogen peroxide, by diffusing into immune cells, activates the nuclear factor KB and allows the synthesis and release of immunoactive cytokines. Ozone cannot reach the tumor site directly because it is totally consumed in the peritoneum and only small amounts of toxic lipoperoxides may reach tumor cells. Several biochemical mechanisms triggered by either ozone or by a cascade of compounds have been extensively reviewed5–8 and the lack of toxicity of a brief and calculated oxidative stress has been clearly distinguished with the ozone toxicity for the lungs due to a prolonged exposure.9

The results presented by Schulz et al. resemble that of several others achieved in experimental tumors by the exogenous injection of either interleukin-2 or endostatin, data that we have been unable to reproduce in human metastatic tumors. Our clinical study in metastatic cancer patients,6 after being treated with as many as 58 ozonated autohemotherapy in 6 months, did show an improvement of the quality of life but did not block metastatic progression. The intraperitoneal route of oxygen–ozone is feasible, but I never managed to evaluate it in inoperable peritoneal carcinosis, where ozone could act directly as well as immunologically on cancer cells. This is due to the opposition of oncologists because they are concerned about the possibility of peritoneal infection and degeneration or oxygen embolism. I do wish Dr. Schulz et al. to be able to evaluate this important problem in patients.

Yours sincerely,

Velio Bocci.