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HBOT for Chemobrain Prevention
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) for chemobrain prevention? Yes, according to the research linked and excerpted below. Once again, my lament is that I wish I knew then what I know now.
The two most debilitating long-term side effects caused by my FDA-approved, “safe and effective,” standard-of-care therapy plan of induction therapy followed by an autologous stem cell transplant are:
- Radiation-induced lumbo-sacral plexopathy (RILP) and
- Chemotherapy-induced cognitive dysfunction (chemobrain)
How does hyperbaric oxygen therapy work?
Both of these side effects, according to research, could have been minimized or even eliminated with HBOT. Unfortunately, oncology spends little time and money studying the negative side effects of its toxic therapies.
Email me at David.PeopleBeatingCancer@gmail.com to learn more about managing MM with both conventional and non-conventional therapies.
Good luck,
David Emerson
- MM Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Behavioral profiling of hyperbaric oxygen as an intervention for chemotherapy-related functional impairments in male and female mice
Highlights
- Chemotherapy caused transient systemic toxicity, cognitive deficits and anxiety-like behaviors, varying by dose and sex.
- HBO improved grip strength and chemotherapy-induced weight loss in females.
- HBO reversed chemo-induced avoidance deficits but worsened spatial memory in males and anxiety-related behavior in females.
- HBO improved coordinated running capacity in males treated with high-dose chemotherapy.
Abstract
‘Chemobrain’ or chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) affects up to 75 % of cancer patients and survivors following chemotherapy treatments. Chemotherapy typically impairs multiple domains, including:
- learning,
- memory,
- attention,
- executive function,
- and mood regulation,
persisting for decades after treatment cessation and significantly diminishing cancer survivors’ quality of life.
Despite its prevalence and long-term impact, effective interventions for CRCI remain limited. This study investigated the behavioral effects of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy on mice exposed to chemotherapy drugs methotrexate (MTX) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU).
Adult male and female C57BL/6 mice received intraperitoneal injections of either saline or chemotherapy (Low-dose: MTX 37.5 mg/kg and 5-FU 50 mg/kg; High-dose: MTX 70 mg/kg and 5-FU 100 mg/kg) once a week for three weeks.
Concurrently, subsets of mice underwent daily HBO (2.4 ATA, 90 min) five days a week for three weeks. Animals’ health was evaluated weekly, and behavioral assessment of
- cognitive,
- motor,
- and affective functions
was conducted post-treatment. Our results showed that chemotherapy, especially at high-dose, impaired spatial memory and navigation, avoidance learning, fear discrimination, and anxiety regulation differently between males and females.
HBO significantly alleviated chemotherapy-induced avoidance learning impairment in both sexes and improved coordinated running capacity in high-dose treated males.
However, HBO co-treatment increased spatial memory deficit in males and increased anxiety-like behaviors in females.
In conclusion, although HBO had some nuanced effects on the various domains, some reversal of CRCI was observed. Therefore, HBO should be further studied and considered as a potential treatment for ‘chemobrain’…
Pre-clinical and clinical studies demonstrated that HBO exposure improves cancer survival rates and boosts chemotherapy’s anti-tumor efficacy by overcoming tumor hypoxia, improving tumor perfusion, and increasing malignant cell sensitivity to destruction—all while maintaining safety in combination with cancer treatments [40], [41], [42], [43].
Indeed, many chemotherapy drugs work by inducing oxidative stress in the tumors resulting in cell death, and HBO enhances the killing of tumor cells by producing reactive oxygen species (ROS), contributing to the synergistic effects of HBO as an adjuvant cancer treatment [44], [45], [46], [47]…
HBOT for chemobrain prevention HBOT for chemobrain prevention HBOT for chemobrain prevention