How to Preventa Cancer

Are you tired of that pesky cancer that's been troubling you in recent weeks?

Have you given up on quack therapies like homeopathy, which promise an effective treatment but which turn out to be nothing but water?

Then you should try Preventa, the new product from Northants-based Blue Gold Ltd.

Preventa is promoted as a treatment for many different kinds of cancer, despite being nothing more than, errr, water!

(Image source)

Preventa sells for the princely sum of £12.77 per bottle - which works out as £919.20 for a "3 month pack". This bargain-basement price doesn't include postage, which is £36 for us Lutonians but a staggering £144 for anyone unfortunate enough to be living in the Scottish town of Paisley.

Why so expensive? Well, you see, Preventa isn't just any ordinary old water. 

No, it is "deuterium-depleted water" or DDW. (Perhaps you'll remember from your post-doctoral chemistry studies that deuterium is a slightly-heavier type of hydrogen which can be found, in relatively small quantities, in all the world's oceans.)

According to the advertiser's website:

"In 1993, HYD [a Hungarian company] discovered a new method to treat patients with cancerous tumours. This new method is the depletion of deuterium in drinking water. Researchers... found that deuterium depleted water inhibits the growth of cancer cells in living organisms, and ultimately causes these cells to die..."

What's more, we're told, the process is completely safe.

"Deuterium depletion is completely safe and innocuous for healthy cells, and there were no adverse reactions or toxic side effects related to deuterium-depleted water during the 18-year-long history of DDW research and its 12-year-long application..."

(Image credit)

Interestingly, the claims above are not complete nonsense. There is some research which suggests DDW has potential as a cancer treatment, if not actually killing off cancer cells then at least slowing their growth.

The most important (or, to put it another way, "only") relevant study is a 2010 clinical trial conducted on people with prostate cancer in Hungary. At first glance, it looks like DDW helped to significantly improve their average life expectancy.

A closer examination reveals several problems. The study seems to be rigorous (another way of saying that it's free of obvious methodological flaws). However, it's only what we call a phase 2 trial. New medicines are always subjected to a further, more extensive period of study - called a phase 3 trial - before they're unleashed on the general public.

A second problem is that the 2010 trial is the only such study. Medical research demands that new discoveries should be independently verified and, for a claim that cancer can be cured simply by drinking water, we would expect lots of independent research before handing out the Nobel prizes.

(Image source)

Blue Gold, perhaps sensing an opportunity for gargantuan profits, don't seem to have been able to restrict their marketing appeals to those claims which are actually true.

For instance, we have this nugget:

"'The biological efficacy of the consumption of [DDW] is confirmed by research and clinical investigations. The most significant effect of deuterium depletion is the anti-tumor effect, but it was also proved that regular consumption of Preventa® optimizes the function of the immune system and slows down the processes of aging... The consumption of Preventa®-125 is recommended... as a regular drinking water for diabetic patients...'"

None of the health claims about the immune system, anti-ageing effects or benefits for diabetic people seem to be anything more than wishful thinking - I haven't been able to find a jot of evidence to support them.

There is also a series of rash claims that Preventa can be used to treat mesothelioma, rectum cancer, breast cancer, leukemia, ovarian cancer and lung cancer. The single study mentioned above was restricted to DDW's possible effect on prostate cancer.

We should also bare in mind that Blue Gold apparently lacks the appropriate authorisation from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), without which it would be illegal to sell Preventa in the UK.

There's also the trifling matter of the Cancer Act 1939 which would seem to escalate Blue Gold Ltd's business practices to the level of a crime. Anchors away!

"I'm writing to complain about preventawater.com, a website for Blue Gold Ltd. 

The website promotes a product called "Preventa" which is marketed as a treatment for cancer.

1. Preventa is a drinking water product which has been treated to remove deuterium (heavy hydrogen), hence the term "deuterium-depleted water" or DDW.

2. The evidence for DDW as a potential cancer treatment rests mainly on two studies: a 1999 study on mice (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11797936) and a 2010 phase-2 clinical study on prostate cancer in humans (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20739263).

3. The website claims: 

(http://store.preventawater.com/)

"In 1993, HYD [a Hungarian company] discovered a new method to treat patients with cancerous tumours. This new method is the depletion of deuterium in drinking water. Researchers at the HYD Company found that deuterium depleted water inhibits the growth of cancer cells in living organisms, and ultimately causes these cells to die. Deuterium depletion is completely safe and innocuous for healthy cells, and there were no adverse reactions or toxic side effects related to deuterium-depleted water during the 18-year-long history of DDW research and its 12-year-long application..."

4. (http://store.preventawater.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=61_62)

"'The biological efficacy of the consumption of [DDW] is confirmed by research and clinical investigations. The most significant effect of deuterium depletion is the anti-tumor effect, but it was also proved that regular consumption of Preventa® optimizes the function of the immune system and slows down the processes of aging... The consumption of Preventa®-125 is recommended... as a regular drinking water for diabetic patients..."

5. The site also contains a series of testimonials: 

(http://store.preventawater.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=65_66)

"My 37-year-old wife was diagnosed with mesothelioma in the pleura... She started consuming Preventa in May 2005 in addition to the chemotherapy.... and today her doctor said: 'I have to tell you something of great consequence, according to your wife’s current CT scan there is not detectable tumor in her body, practically, it has been regressed.'"

6. (http://store.preventawater.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=65_70)

"After the diagnosis of breast cancer in 1988, the first bone metastasis was verified in September 1992. Until the patient started drinking DDW, examinations verified progression, and her pain and disability increased.Following the administration of DDW, her pain subsided within 1–1.5 months, and bone scintigraphy carried out two months later could not verify several small metastases that had earlier been present. The patient consumed Dd-water until January 1994 and noted an improvement in the quality of life..."

7. (http://store.preventawater.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=65_72)

"Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) was diagnosed in February 2006... DDW consumption was initiated upon diagnosis. One month later the WBC count started decreasing and by the 7th month of the cure the WBC count reached the physiological level... To sum up, during the last one and a half year of DDW consumption there was a significant improvement in the patient’s condition and not any forms of conventional therapy was applied."

8. On the same page, the site notes:

"The Preventa® deuterium depleted drinking water has not yet been recognised as a medicine..."

9. I'd like to challenge whether the advertisement:

(i) Is misleading because it promotes a treatment for various forms of cancer

(ii) Offers a treatment for conditions for which qualified medical supervision should be sought, which might discourage essential treatment

(iii) Is misleading because it promotes a product which has not been approved by the MHRA as a medicine

(iv) Is misleading because it uses the word 'cure' on several occasions (such as the quote in paragraph 7 above)

10. I'd also like to challenge whether the health claims made can be substantiated, because

(i) The evidence for a treatment for prostate cancer appears to rest on a single phase-2 clinical trial which has apparently never been replicated, nor proceeded to a phase-3 trial

(ii) There appears to be no clinical evidence regarding DDW as a treatment for any other form of cancer in humans

(iii) There appears to be no evidence supporting the claims that Preventa "optimizes the function of the immune system", "slows down the processes of aging" or is helpful for "diabetic patients".

11. Finally, I'd like to challenge whether the testamonial claims for mesothelioma, rectum cancer, breast cancer, leukemia, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer and lung cancer can be substantiated with rigorous clinical evidence."