A retrospective study of survival in breast cancer patients undergoing deuterium depletion in addition to conventional therapies

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that the heavy isotope of hydrogen, deuterium (D), has a pivotal role in cell signalling and that its depletion through the replacement of normal drinking water with deuterium-depleted water (DDW) results in tumour necrosis. The impact of D–depletion on breast cancer outcome was studied retrospectively. The normal daily water intake (150 ppm D) of 232 breast cancer patients was replaced with DDW (65-105 ppm D) for at least 91 days, without altering conventional treatment regimens. According to staging at initial diagnosis, patients with early stage breast cancer (n158) achieved a median survival time (MST) of 217 months (18.1 years), compared with 52 months (4.3 years) in patients with advanced disease (n74). The MST is pending in the subgroup of patients who were in remission at the start of DDW treatment; only one out of 48 patients died during the cumulative follow-up period of 221.1 years. Although single DDW treatment was effective, an outstandingly long MST of 24.4 years was attained in the subgroup of 53 patients who were treated with DDW at least twice. In comparison with published data, DDW treatment in combination with or as an extension of conventional therapies noticeably prolonged MST in certain subgroups of breast cancer patients. D-depletion may also be a highly effective therapy for preventing the recurrence of breast cancer. Furthermore, the method is safe and can be easily integrated into standard treatment regimens for breast cancer.