Veterans Special Report

Clinical Trial – Optical Coherence Tomography for Monitoring Late Oral Radiation Toxicity After Radiotherapy of Head and Neck Cancer Patients

by | Aug 30, 2012 | Abnormalities, Clinical Trials, HBOT Research, Radiation-Induced

Radiation therapy of the head and neck cancer patients causes late oral radiation
complications such as xerostomia (dry mouth) or mucosal atrophy. Currently, methods such as
hyperbaric oxygen are used to treat these complications; however, there are no quantifiable
means of assessing the outcome of these methods. At present, subjective methods such as
superficial examination of the oral cavity are used, yet complications are known to mostly
start in the subsurface layers. In this feasibility study, we apply an imaging technique
called optical coherence tomography (OCT) as a means of providing objective and quantifiable
images of the subsurface micro-structural and micro-vascular changes of oral tissue.
Depth-resolved, micrometer-resolution OCT images provide information on changes associated
with late radiation complications.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy and cancer–a review.

by | May 14, 2012 | Cancer, Key Cancer Research

Hypoxia is a critical hallmark of solid tumors and involves enhanced cell survival, angiogenesis, glycolytic metabolism, and metastasis. Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) treatment has for centuries been used to improve or cure disorders involving hypoxia and ischemia, by enhancing the amount of dissolved oxygen in the plasma and thereby increasing O(2) delivery to the tissue. Studies on HBO and cancer have up to recently focused on whether enhanced oxygen acts as a cancer promoter or not. As oxygen is believed to be required for all the major processes of wound healing, one feared that the effects of HBO would be applicable to cancer tissue as well and promote cancer growth. Furthermore, one also feared that exposing patients who had been treated for cancer, to HBO, would lead to recurrence.