Still, the results of these studies were positive enough for some people to claim that hydrogen peroxide can cure cancer. The scientists carried out their research on animals, and though there were some favorable results, most indicated that hydrogen peroxide had limited effects. Research in the mid-1900s suggested that hydrogen peroxide could have a positive effect. Some researchers believed that providing an abundance of oxygen to cancer cells might cure the cancer, so they began to look into how compounds, such as hydrogen peroxide, affected cancer cells. Share on Pinterest Research does not support the use of hydrogen peroxide to treat cancer.Ĭlaims that hydrogen peroxide can treat or cure cancer date back to the early 1930s when a German doctor called Otto Heinrich Warburg discovered that cancer cells could grow successfully without oxygen.Īs a result of his discovery, other researchers began to hypothesize that low oxygen levels lead to cancer development.