Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and
malignant gliomas are the most common
primary malignant brain tumors.
Temozolomide (TMZ)
chemotherapy plus
radiation therapy (RT), admi-mistered after debulking surgery, increased the median survival time (MST) from 12.1 months with RT alone merely to 14.6 months, respectively. In this study, the actions of
deuterium-depleted water (DDW) on the survival of GBM patients who also received conventional
therapies was investigated. Without changing the conventional treatment, the daily fluid intake of the patients was wholly replaced with DDW in 1.5-2 L per day volume to reduce the D concentration in their bodies. The primary endpoint was the MST. The 55 patients involved in this study, who received conventional treatment and consumed DDW, showed a longer MST (30 months) compared to the historical control (12.1-14.6 months). There was a massive difference between the two genders in the calculated MST values; it was 25 months in the male subgroup (n = 33) and 42 months in the female subgroup (n = 22), respectively. The MST was 27 months without TMZ treatment (38 patients) and 42 months in the TMZ-treated group (17 patients), respectively. For the selected 31 patients, who consumed DDW in the correct way in addition to their conventional treatments, their MST was calculated as 30 months. Within this group, the 20 subjects who had relapsed before DDW treatment had 30 months of MST, but in those 10 subjects who were in remission when DDW treatment started, their MST was 47 months. In the subgroup of patients who began their DDW treatment parallel with
radiotherapy, their MST was again 47 months, and it was 25 months when their DDW treatment was started at 8 weeks or later after the completion of
radiotherapy. Altogether, these survival times were substantially prolonged compared to the prospective clinical data of patients with primary GBM. Consequently, if conventional
therapies are supplemented with D depletion, better survival can be achieved in the advanced stage of GBM than with the known targeted or combination
therapies. Application of DDW is recommended in all stages of the disease before surgery and in parallel with
radiotherapy, and repeated DDW courses are advised when remission has been achieved.