Rational bases for using oxygen-ozonetherapy as a biological response modifier in sickle cell anemia and beta-thalassemia: a therapeutic perspective.

We are proposing to evaluate whether a complementary approach based on cycles of oxygen-ozone autohemotherapy (O3-AHT) already performed in millions of patients, can abate the chronic oxidative stress and improve the quality of life of serious hemoglobinopathic patients. Although a preliminary study has yielded encouraging results, it appears appropriate to perform a controlled, randomized and possibly multicentre clinical trial. The long use of this approach in other pathologies has proved to be very useful and it is hoped that scepticism will not prevail over scientific rationale. Ozone, as any other drug, has an intrinsic toxicity that, in the proposed application, is fully tamed by the blood antioxidant system.