Is Ozone Therapy Effective Against Cancer?

Whether through the death of a loved one, the scary diagnosis of a friend, or the fight for survival ourselves, we have all been affected by cancer in some way. According to the American Cancer Society, cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States.  What really makes cancer so frightening isn’t that it’s contagious — it’s not — but that there is no cure. 

For a complete overview of conditions, see what diseases does ozone therapy treat.

With no known cure for the ravaging disease of cancer, many people resort to treatments that can often be as risky and draining as the disease itself. But is there a way to fight cancer without destroying your body in the process? That’s what this post aims to address.

It is important that you consult with your medical practitioner before attempting any form of ozone therapy.  This article is for educational purposes only. MediSkill is not intended as a substitute for the diagnosis, treatment and advice of a qualified licensed medical professional. This site assumes no responsibility for how this material is used. The statements regarding ozone treatments have not been evaluated by the FDA.

At a glance:

• Ozone therapy is used for patients with cancer because of its effect on oxygen efficiency and immune modulation, two primary pillars of cancer care.
• Ozone therapy is commonly used as an adjunct to patients with cancer by reducing toxicity from standard cancer treatments and improving overall quality of life
• Ozone therapy has a long safety record when done correctly by a trained practitioner
• There are multiple ways to apply ozone therapy.  Usually it involves IVs at a clinic and/or supplementation with rectal or vaginal ozone therapy at home

Why people look beyond conventional cancer care

For as long as humans have been writing, we’ve been writing about cancer. But for all of our medical advancements over the centuries, we’re still battling its incurability. In 1971, Richard Nixon declared a “war on cancer”, devoting hundreds of millions of federal dollars to the research and prevention of the disease. Decades and billions of dollars later, there has been no breakthrough that ends cancer, and for many cancers, outcomes have been relatively stagnant. Treatment is still hard on the body.

The American Cancer Society says this: 

“In 2022, 1,918,030 new cancer cases and 609,360 cancer deaths are projected to occur in the United States, including approximately 350 deaths per day from lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death.” 

Even if you don’t have cancer, the probability is that someone close to you will have it at some point.  So it stands to reason that everyone should have a basic understanding of how to battle cancer.

Why Ozone Therapy is Used in Cancer

Is ozone therapy a cancer cure? No, unfortunately.  But clinics commonly use it as an adjunctive to a more comprehensive program, because it gives the body a healthier terrain to fight disease.

To help you understand the point of using a “non-curing” treatment, we’ll explain it in the context of a natural/integrative cancer approach.

In his book Hope for Cancer, Dr. Tony Jimenez elaborates on the 7 key principles to fighting cancer:

• Non-toxic cancer therapies
• Immunomodulation
• Full spectrum nutrition
• Detoxification
• Oxygenation
• Restore microbiome
• Emotional and spiritual healing

Dr. Tony Jimenez believes ozone therapy helps cancer patients.  Most integrative and natural cancer approaches will have a comprehensive system like this, often including ozone therapy.

Natural and integrative cancer clinics use ozone therapy, not because it attacks the cancer, but because it works in two of the seven pillars — oxygenation and immune modulation.

Benefits of Ozone Therapy in Patients with Cancer

Ozone therapy is not a cancer cure.  What ozone therapy can do however, may have a very helpful effect on building the terrain of the body and making it more difficult for disease to thrive.  In combination with a comprehensive approach, doctors like Dr. Tony Jimenez, Dr. Ann Auburn, and Dr. Robert Rowen have seen positive results in comparison with conventional methods.  

Nonetheless, cancer is a difficult disease and nothing works every time.  We are not trying to instill false hope, we’re trying to provide education about what ozone therapy does so you can make an informed decision. If you're being treated for cancer, use ozone alongside your oncologist's care, not in place of it, and tell them what you're doing.

The idea is to build the terrain and health of the body so it is more capable of fighting disease.

Ozone therapy modulates the immune system 

Many cancer patients have a heightened immune burden.  Their immune system is compromised and has trouble handling pathogens in the system.  

Ozone takes a holistic approach and allows your body to balance its own immune system, a form of auto correction.  It merely stimulates your immune system to take the appropriate reaction, either enhancing or diminishing its response. 

The goal here is to lower the immune burden on the system.  

Ozone therapy improves blood circulation and oxygen delivery

Ozone therapy is claimed to improve rheology of the blood (blood flow), an important aspect of bringing nutritional elements to your cells and eliminating byproducts.  Proper blood flow sets the foundation for your body to repair itself.  It is also postulated that this may help correct hypoxic and acidic tissue, an environment that cancer thrives in.  Furthermore, it’s not necessary to do ozone blood treatments.  Improving blood flow can be done with simple at home measures, such as rectal insufflation.

Ozone therapy increases energy levels 

Treatments like radiation and chemotherapy are physically draining. Ozone therapy’s ability to enhance metabolic efficiency — more specifically, oxygen efficiency — naturally increases the energy that patients lose in response to cancer treatments and cancer itself.

One study observed a high percentage of cancer patients significantly reduced fatigue with the use of ozone therapy:

“Fatigue may be caused by all cancer treatments, maybe because the tissue damage or the build-up of dead cells derived products…Patients were treated with Auto Hemotransfusion (GAE) according to the SIOOT (Scientific Society of Oxygen Ozone Therapy) protocols…No side effects were found, and 35 patients (70%) achieved a significant improvement (> 50%) of the symptoms.”

This was a short report on 50 patients without a control group, so it is encouraging rather than proof.

Ozone therapy increases oxygen efficiency

Oxygen efficiency is possibly the number one reason doctors and cancer patients are attracted to ozone therapy.  There’s a significant amount of research behind the claim that ozone therapy increases oxygen efficiency while helping your body produce more energy.  (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Oxygen efficiency is different from breathing oxygen. Breathing gets oxygen into your body, but oxygen efficiency describes how well you use it.

You can breathe all the oxygen you want (not a bad idea), but what’s more important for your overall health is how well your body puts that oxygen to use (oxygen efficiency).  Ozone therapy may help people increase their oxygen efficiency.

Ozone reduces toxicity from chemotherapy

If you are doing or considering chemotherapy, ozone therapy has been claimed to reduce the toxicity of chemotherapy.  

A review on the use of ozone therapy in adjunct with chemotherapy states the following:

“Ozone therapy can induce a controlled oxidative stress able to stimulate an adaptive antioxidant response in healthy tissue. This review describes the studies using ozone therapy to prevent and/or treat chemotherapy-induced toxicity… In vitro and animal studies, as well as isolated clinical reports, suggest the potential role of ozone as an adjuvant during radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy.” 

In other words, lab and animal studies and early clinical reports suggest ozone may help protect healthy tissue from chemotherapy and radiation. Larger clinical trials are still needed.

On the same note, another report found:

“Patients with prostatic cancer were treated with cobalt-60 therapy and ozone (rectally), decreasing the presence of side effects (due to radiation treatment) and the prostatic specific antigen figures… In spite of the positive ozone biological effects, its potential usefulness as an adjuvant in chemo-radiotherapy and its antimetastatic effect

And this was verified under yet another study, that stated: 

“modulation of free radicals and antioxidants by ozone therapy was associated with decreased chemotherapy-induced toxicity.” (This is also a review of mostly lab and animal research.)

Many patients also use ozone oil for burns and associated wounds due to radiation therapies.

Essentially, it reduces the negative side effects of chemotherapy and helps the body to maintain a healthier terrain.  So the patient experiences a better quality of life with ozone therapy.  

Ozone improves quality of life in cancer patients

Quality of life is often undervalued in lieu of quantity of life.  It’s worthwhile to consider, regardless of how much time we have on earth, how we can improve overall quality of life.

Dr. Velio Bocci, the father of ozone therapy, wrote about the quality of life in combination with cancer patients:

 “after being treated with … ozonated autohemotherapy in 6 months, did show an improvement of the quality of life”

There is one study with a more optimistic view of ozone therapy. This study states: 

“These results indicated that ozone could be useful in colon cancer management in combination with 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin with significant inhibition of cytokines having a central role in colon cancer cell survival and chemoresistance.”

This was a lab study on colon cancer cells in a dish, not in patients, but it suggests ozone may make chemotherapy work better against those cells.

To sum it up in an opinion:

• Ozone therapy is a helpful adjunctive in patients with cancer but is not a cancer treatment
• Lab, animal and early clinical reports suggest it may reduce the toxicity of chemotherapy and radiation
• Many patients report better quality of life, with more energy and mental clarity
• Ozone therapy assists immune modulation, oxygen efficiency, microcirculation, and retaining healthy cells to help the body be in a healthier state and more capable of fighting disease

Is Ozone Therapy for Cancer Safe?

While ozone is harmful to the lungs, scientists have discovered ozone therapy can be safely administered to other parts of the body, such as blood or the colon. 

Breathing ozone is not safe because it will irritate the lungs.  There is no antioxidant system in the lungs, which makes them vulnerable to oxidants like ozone. 

We have an article dedicated to evaluating the safety of ozone therapy that you can view here.

Ozone can be safely applied in other parts of the body because they have an antioxidant system.  This system, found in most parts of the body, defends against the potential for ozone to cause harm.

According to data by the International Scientific Committee of Ozone Therapy, a large German survey from the 1980s found side effects in about 6 out of 100,000 ozone therapy sessions (0.006%).  They attribute most of the negative side effects to misuse by the doctor.

Nonetheless, these are common contraindications to ozone therapy:

• Patients with a significant deficiency of G-6PD, a genetic disorder that accentuates the breakdown of red blood cells
• Pregnancy
• Blood coagulation issues, anemia
• Serious cardio-vascular instability 
• A Herxheimer reaction (temporary worsening of symptoms) can sometimes occur in patients with a burdened immune system — however, this is rare and easily avoidable with the right protocols 

What Results Can You Expect?

Although we cannot guarantee anything, patients generally experience:

• Increased energy
• Reduced pain
• Decreased toxicity
• Feeling of wellness
• Improved mental clarity

What is the Best Way to Do Ozone Therapy for Cancer?

We have excellent articles that compare all the clinical applications.  To read and compare at home applications, click here.

Best Way to Administer Ozone Therapy in Patients with Cancer:

• IV ozone therapy at the clinic
• Rectal or vaginal ozone at home

Generally, patients with cancer do a form of IV ozone therapy at the clinic and/or supplement it with systemic ozone therapy at home (rectal or vaginal).

One of the many advantages of ozone therapy in treating any disease is that it can be done at home several times a week via rectal insufflation in addition to intravenous ozone in a clinic. 

Always consult your doctor before adding ozone therapy to your cancer treatment plan. 

Treatments in the clinic:

• Major Autohemotherapy (MaH) — This is the most common version of ozone therapy and usually involves the withdrawal of 60–300 cc of blood.  Ozone gas is then infused into the blood outside of the body and readministered into the vein. 

• 10Pass — 10Pass is a newer version of ozone therapy that uses a high dose of ozone.  Blood is withdrawn, mixed with ozone, and readministered into the vein.  This process is done ten times, hence the name.  This therapy costs around $1,200 per treatment and takes up to two hours.  Many people do not have strong enough veins to do all ten passes.  While some people believe that more is always better, we do not. 

• HiDose — HiDose is half the dose and cost of 10Pass but is the same general concept.  Blood is only withdrawn and readministered one time instead of ten.  It is still a much higher dose than the standard protocol, Major Autohemotherapy.

• EBOO (Extracorporeal Blood Oxygenation Ozonation) — EBOO ozone therapy involves two lines in the patient simultaneously.  It is administered as blood is drawn from one arm, mixed with ozone, and pumped back into the other arm. A dialysis filter is often used for the purposes of mixing the ozone with blood which confuses people into thinking it is dialysis therapy plus ozone therapy. 

Treatments at home:

The following treatments are sometimes administered at the clinic, but it is usually much cheaper and easier for people to do them at home.  They take about 3–5 minutes, can be done up to 5 times a week, and the entire setup costs under $2,000.‍

• Rectal Insufflation — Rectal insufflation ozone therapy stimulates the same pathways as IV ozone therapy.  While it might not be as effective, it can be done up to 5 times a week in under 5 minutes.  It also has a much lower cost per treatment in comparison with IV ozone, making it highly valuable.  

• Vaginal Insufflation — Vaginal ozone insufflation is the release of ozone gas into the vagina for 5–10 minutes, and is an effective way to elicit a systemic response in the body.  In addition, it works well for vaginal based issues.  

• Ozone Sauna — Much research is still needed about ozone saunas.  However, there is some promising anecdotal evidence and newer research showing their systemic effect.  The nice part about ozone saunas is how minimally invasive they are.  The only problem is that the equipment still needs to be standardized.  There isn’t any equipment that can prove it provides enough ozone to cause a systemic benefit… yet. However, we are certain that small ozone generators using ambient air DO NOT work.  The ozone is quickly dissipated back into oxygen because they don’t provide enough ozone amidst the heat to make it to the skin.

How Much Does Ozone Therapy Cost?

There are multiple ways to administer ozone therapy.  For most patients with cancer, they do a form of intravenous ozone therapy and supplement it with a systemic therapy at home.

• IV ozone at the clinic - $200 - $1,000 per treatment
• Rectal or vaginal ozone at home - $1,400-$2,000 for the equipment.  It lasts indefinitely.

How Can I Do Ozone Therapy for Cancer?

For full information on how to do ozone therapy at home, we recommend downloading our free guide.

It includes:

• How to do ozone therapy and the protocols
• How to get all the equipment and supplies
• How to choose the right frequency and dose
• How to set everything up
• How to get results from ozone therapy

Want a clinic to do it? Find an ozone doctor near you, and bring your oncologist into the conversation. See what ozone therapy costs first.

Cancer Resources

We have a few cancer resources that we view as helpful.  

Hope4Cancer is a clinic based out of Tijuana, Mexico.  They can do more therapies in Mexico (right across from San Diego) than is allowed in the United States.

Secondarily, there is also the Gerson protocol.  This is an in depth cancer protocol developed by Max Gerson only using natural methods.

Third, we recommend a website called cancertutor.com, which also teaches on the use of ozone therapy.

Ozone Therapy in the Gerson Protocol

People going through the Gerson protocol often implement rectal insufflation ozone therapy into the regimen.  Usually it is done after the use of coffee enemas. 

Other cancer modalities we like:

• PolyMVA
• Hyperbaric Oxygen
• Vitamin C IV
• Sauna Therapy
• Ice Baths
• Coffee Enemas
• Biological Dentistry

And more.  These are just to name a few.

Conclusion

Ozone therapy is not a standalone cancer modality.  It works in combination with a comprehensive cancer approach.  It is commonly used in cancer clinics for lowering the burden on the immune system and improving oxygenation.

There is evidence suggesting an improved quality of life, energy, and mental clarity in patients with cancer.  

For patients undergoing chemotherapy, early studies suggest it may decrease the toxicity of the therapy on healthy cells.

Start a conversation with your doctor about implementing ozone therapy into your cancer treatment.