Hydrogen Gas Boosts Immune System in Advanced Lung Cancer Patients
Two weeks of hydrogen inhalation can significantly reverse adaptive and innate immune system senescence patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer: a self-controlled study
Research hubs: Immune System · Respiratory System
- Evidence type
- Uncontrolled trial (single-arm or pilot) · Human study
- Authors
- Ke-Cheng Xu, Ji-Bing Chen, Xiao-Feng Kong, Wei Qian, Feng Mu, Tian-Yu Lu, You-Yong Lu
- Journal
- Medical Gas Research
- Year
- 2020
- PMID
- 33380580
- Study Type
- Human
- Participants
- 20
- Delivery
- Gas
- Dose
- 66.7% hydrogen and 33.3% oxygen mixture at 3 L/min for 4 hours each day for 2 weeks
- H₂ concentration
- 66.7% H2, 33.3% O2
- Duration
- 2 weeks
- Funding
- No external funding declared
- Conflicts of interest
- None declared
- Outcome
- Positive
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Cited by
- 38 (OpenAlex, as of November 2026)
- Country
- China
TL;DR
Inhaling a hydrogen-oxygen gas mixture for two weeks improved the immune cell function in patients with advanced lung cancer.
Key Finding
Two weeks of hydrogen gas inhalation normalized multiple immune cell types in advanced lung cancer patients, including restoring low counts of helper T cells and natural killer cells and reducing elevated counts of exhausted immune cells.
Summary
This study looked at whether breathing hydrogen gas could help restore immune system function in 20 patients with advanced lung cancer. The researchers measured different types of immune cells before and after patients breathed a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen for 4 hours daily for 2 weeks. They found that after hydrogen inhalation, several immune cell types that were abnormally low returned to normal levels, and immune cells that were abnormally high decreased to normal ranges.
Practical Takeaway
While this small study suggests hydrogen inhalation may help restore immune function in lung cancer patients during treatment breaks, it is very preliminary—it involved only 20 patients with no control group for comparison, and did not measure whether these immune changes actually improved cancer outcomes or survival. Much larger and more rigorous studies would be needed before any clinical recommendations could be made.
Abstract (excerpt)
Following standard treatments, the traditional model for enhancing anti-tumor immunity involves performing immune reconstitution (e.g., adoptive immune cell therapies or immunoenhancing drugs) to prevent recurrence. For patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer, we report here on two…