Cancer Treatment -
NEWS RELEASE
May 27, 1997
ONCOTECH REPORTS CONCLUSION ON "EFFECT OF DEUTERIUM DEPLETION ON TUMOR CELL SURVIVAL AND PROLIFERATION"
The following is the Conclusion from the May 27, 1997 report by Oncotech, Incorporated located in Irvine, California:
"CONCLUSION"
"Previous studies by Oncotech, using DDW media in cultures of several human breast, melanoma and prostate cancer cell lines, have shown that this reagent induced inhibition of DNA synthesis in these cell lines (Oncotech's Hydros Report, September 1996). The percentage inhibition of DNA synthesis observed was between 10% and 15% and was short-lived - occurring during the first 6 hours of exposure to DDW and disappearing after 24 to 48 hours. Interestingly, the inhibition of DNA synthesis was shown to be more prominent in cells synchronized at the GOG1 phase of the cell cycle, after a 24 hour incubation in serum-free media and subsequent culturing in media containing 100% to 50% DDW, compared to non-synchronized cells. These studies provided evidence suggesting that, in human cancer cell cultures, deuterium deficiency affected DNA synthesis which led to a temporary inhibition of the cell proliferation.
In this current study, we extended our investigation to examine the effect of deuterium depletion on freshly resected tumor biopsies obtained from cancer patients. Three breast carcinomas and three ovarian carcinomas were tested, using Oncotech's DiSC and EDR assays to assess tumor cell survival and tumor cell proliferation, respectively, following gradual depletion of deuterium in the culture media. The DiSC assay provided a microscopic examination of the gross morphology of stained cytospins, and delineated viable cells from those killed by the drug treatment, as compared to untreated control cells. In the first set of experiments, two breast and two ovarian tumors were processed and used to determine the viability of cells at 1, 3, 6, 24, 48, and 96 hours after culture in DDW media. Results indicated that tumor cell viability was unaffected, suggesting that the depletion of deuterium in the culture media was not cytotoxic. Subsequent experiments employed the EDR assay to evaluate the impact of gradual depletion of deuterium on tumor cell growth over 72 hours. Significant inhibition of tumor cell proliferation was observed after the total deuterium levels in D media reached 36 ppm (i.e., at 72 hours; Fig. 5). These results showed that a critical level of deuterium depletion was achieved, which impacted on the growth of human tumors, whereby up to 48% inhibition of tumor cell proliferation was achieved. Further studies using this or other treatment protocols is recommended to assess the extent to which deuterium depletion is necessary for greater cell kill and for possible therapeutic utility."
