Hydrogen Therapy in Colorectal Cancer TreatmentScientific Research

Hydrogen inhalation may limit cancer progression and extend overall survival in advanced colorectal cancer patients. This is the conclusion of a medical study conducted with 21 men and 34 women at the Tamana Medical Health Center in Japan.

The study investigated the role of hydrogen in restoring exhausted immune cells that play a key role in fighting malignant tumors, both in colorectal and other cancers.

Patients were between the ages of 28 and 96 years old – diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal carcinoma. All 55 participants received conventional chemotherapy while also inhaling hydrogen for 3 hours each day at home. Hydrogen inhalation was carried out using a home hydrogen therapy device.

Patients signed written informed consent before enrolling in the study, and the study protocol was approved by the responsible institutional review boards. The methods and procedures followed Good Clinical Practice according to the Declaration of Helsinki and local laws.

Patient status was monitored at regular intervals with blood tests and CT or MRI scans. The scan results were reviewed by two independent radiologists who were deliberately blinded to the study topic to ensure maximum objectivity. Each radiologist has more than 5 years of experience in the interpretation of diagnostic imaging, which guaranteed their experience, professionalism, and objectivity.

At the end of the study, it was found that hydrogen significantly contributed to the restoration of the immune system and thus helped the body fight cancer cells effectively on its own. Additionally, none of the patients reported any problems as a result of hydrogen therapy. Similar results have been achieved in numerous other scientific studies investigating the benefits of hydrogen therapy in the fight against various cancers.

Thanks to this study, a system has been developed that can be useful in real clinical practice, helping healthcare professionals to determine more effective and personalized treatment methods based on individual patient characteristics.

Hydrogen therapy has shown impressive results and strong promise in the field of immunotherapy and may be the key to the future in the fight against cancer and healthcare as a whole.

This discovery opens up new possibilities for the treatment of colorectal cancer, especially in advanced stages where treatment options are often limited. Numerous other studies also suggest that in the future, cancer could be more easily treated with this innovative method.


The Original Article:

original title: Hydrogen gas restores exhausted CD8+ T cells in patients with advanced colorectal cancer to improve prognosis

DOI: 10.3892/or.2018.6841

Published on: 2019


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Abstract:

Exhausted cluster of differentiation (CD)8+ T cells lose immunological activity due to mitochondrial dysfunction caused by peroxisome proliferator‑activated receptor γ coactivator 1α (PGC‑1α) inactivation, resulting in a poor prognosis in patients with cancer. As hydrogen gas was recently reported to activate PGC‑1α, the present study investigated whether it restores exhausted CD8+ T cells to improve prognosis in patients with stage IV colorectal cancer. A total of 55 patients with histologically and clinically diagnosed stage IV colorectal carcinoma were enrolled between July 2014 and July 2017. The patients inhaled hydrogen gas for 3 h/day at their own homes and received chemotherapy at the Tamana Regional Health Medical Center (Tamana, Kumamoto, Japan). The CD8+ T cells were isolated from the peripheral blood and their phenotype was analyzed by flow cytometry. It was found that exhausted terminal programmed cell death 1 (PD‑1)+ CD8+ T cells in the peripheral blood are independently associated with worse progression‑free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Notably, hydrogen gas decreased the abundance of exhausted terminal PD‑1+ CD8+ T cells, increased that of active terminal PD‑1‑ CD8+ T cells, and improved PFS and OS times, suggesting that the balance between terminal PD1+ and PD1‑ CD8+ T cells is critical for cancer prognosis. Therefore, a novel system for patient classification (category 1‑4) was developed in the present study based on these two indices to assist in predicting the prognosis and therapeutic response. Collectively, the present results suggested that hydrogen gas reverses imbalances toward PD‑1+ CD8+ T cells to provide an improved prognosis.

Authors:

Hideo Baba, Junji Akagi

Original Publication
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