Clinical trials of radiotherapy in hyperbaric oxygen at Portsmouth, 1964--1976.

For 12 years randomised clinical trials have been run at Portsmouth in collaboration with the Medical Research Council's Working Party on radiotherapy and high pressure oxygen to determine the survival rate of patients treated by megavoltage radiotherapy in high pressure oxygen (HPO) compared with those treated in air at atmospheric pressure. Five hundred and five patients have been included, 280 with carcinoma bronchus, 163 with carcinoma bladder and 62 with carcinoma cervix stage III. With conventional small fraction daily radiotherapy, the use of HPO has not improved survival in carcinoma of the bronchus and of the bladder. When six fractions of 600 rad maximum tissue dose are given in HPO, some improved survival is shown in carcinoma of the bronchus and of the cervix compared with the same dose in the air series. In the cervix, the survival rate in HPO is almost the same as that of a retrospective series treated by an intrauterine radium tube followed by 6000 rad central depth dose to the whole true pelvis in air. Large fraction radiotherapy has not given improved survival when using adjuvant HPO in carcinoma of the bladder. The bladder trial has now been abandoned.