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Xuewu Liu, a Chinese inventor who has no medical training or
credentials of any kind, is charging cancer patients $20,000 for
access to an AI-driven but entirely unproven treatment that
includes injecting a highly concentrated dose of chlorine dioxide,
a toxic bleach solution, directly into cancerous tumors.

One patient tells WIRED her tumor has grown faster since the
procedure and that she suspects it may have caused her cancer to
spread—a claim Liu disputes—while experts allege his marketing of
the treatment has likely put him on the wrong side of US
regulations. Nonetheless, while Liu currently only offers the
treatment informally in China and at a German clinic, he is now
working with a Texas-based former pharmaceutical executive to bring
his treatment to America. They believe that the appointment of
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as US health secretary will help “open doors”
to get the untested treatment—in which at least one clinic in
California appears to have interest—approved in the US.

Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement is embracing
alternative medicines and the idea of giving patients the freedom
to try unproven treatments. While the health secretary did not
respond to a request for comment about Liu’s treatment, he did
mention chlorine dioxide when questioned about President Donald
Trump’s Operation Warp Speed during his Senate confirmation hearing
in February, and the Food and Drug Administration recently removed
a warning about the substance from its website. The agency says the
removal was part of a routine process of archiving old pages on its
site, but it has had the effect of emboldening the bleacher
community.

“Without the FDA’s heavy-handed warnings, it’s likely my therapy
would have been accepted for trials years earlier, with
institutional partnerships and investor support,” Liu tells WIRED.
He says he wrote to Kennedy earlier this year urging him to conduct
more research on chlorine dioxide. “This quiet removal won’t
immediately change everything, but it opens a door. If mainstream
media reports on this shift, I believe it will unlock a new wave of
serious [chlorine dioxide] research.”

For decades, pseudoscience grifters have peddled chlorine dioxide solutions—sold under a variety of names, such as Miracle Mineral
Solution—and despite warnings and prosecutions have continued to
claim the toxic substance is a “cure” for everything from HIV to
Covid-19 to autism. There is no credible evidence to back up any of
these claims, which critics have long labeled as nothing more than
a grift.

The treatments typically involve drinking liquid chlorine dioxide
on a regular basis, using solutions with concentrations of chlorine
dioxide of around 3,000 parts per million (ppm), which is diluted
further in water.

Liu’s treatment, however, involves a much higher concentration of
chlorine dioxide—injections of several milliliters of 20,000
ppm—and, rather than drinking it, patients have it injected
directly into their tumors.

Liu claims he has injected himself with the solution more than 50
times and suffered no side effects. “This personal data point
encouraged me to continue research,” he says.

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Liu has been making the solution in his rented apartment in Beijing
by mixing citric acid with sodium chlorite, according to an account
he shared earlier this month on his Substack that revealed that a
“violent explosion” occurred when he made a mistake.

“The blast blacked out my vision,” Liu wrote. “Dense clouds of
chlorine dioxide burst into my face, filling my eyes, nose, and
mouth. I stumbled back into the apartment, rushing to the bathroom
to wash out the gas from my eyes and respiratory tract. My lungs
were burning. Later, I would find 4–5 cuts on my upper thigh—shards
of glass had pierced through my pants.” Liu also revealed that his
3-year-old daughter was nearby when the explosion happened.

Liu began a preclinical study on animals in 2016, before beginning
to use the highly concentrated solution to treat human patients in
more recent years. He claims that between China and Germany, he has
treated 20 patients to date.

When asked for evidence to back up his claims of efficacy, Liu
shared links to a number of preprints, which have not been peer-
reviewed, with WIRED. He also shared a pitch deck for a $5 million
seed round in a US-focused startup that would provide the chlorine
dioxide injections.

The presentation contains a number of “case studies” of patients he
has treated—including a dog—but rather than featuring detailed
scientific data, the deck contains disturbing images of the
patients’ tumors. The deck also contains, as evidence of the
treatment’s efficacy, a screenshot of a WhatsApp conversation with
a patient who was apparently treating a liver tumor with chlorine
dioxide.

“Screenshots of WhatsApp chats with patients or their doctors is
not evidence of efficacy, yet that is the only evidence he
provides,” says Alex Morozov, an oncologist who has overseen
hundreds of drug trials at multiple companies including Pfizer.
“Needless to say, until appropriate studies are done and published
in peer-reviewed journals, or presented at a reputable conference,
no patients should be treated except in the context of clinical
trials.”

WIRED spoke to a patient of Liu’s, whose descriptions of the
treatment appear to undermine his claims of efficacy and raise
serious questions about its safety.

“I bought the needles online and made the chlorine dioxide by
myself [then] I injected it into the tumor and lymph nodes by
myself,” says the patient, a Chinese national living in the UK.
WIRED granted her anonymity to protect her privacy.

The patient had previously been taking oral solutions of chlorine
dioxide as an alternative treatment for cancer, but, unsatisfied
with the results, she contacted Liu via WhatsApp. On a spring
evening last year, she took her first injection of chlorine dioxide
and, she says, almost immediately suffered negative side effects.

“It was fine after the injection, but I was woken up by severe pain
[like] I had never experienced in my life,” she says. “The pain
lasted for three to four days.”

Despite the pain, she says, she injected herself again two months
later, and a month after that she traveled to China, where Liu,
despite having no medical training, injected her, using an
anesthetic cream to numb the skin.

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“While this act technically fell outside legal boundaries, in
China, if the patient is competent and gives informed consent, such compassionate-use interventions rarely attract regulatory attention
unless harm is done,” Liu tells WIRED.

Experts on Chinese medical regulations tell WIRED that new
treatments like Liu’s would have to meet strict conditions before
they can be administered to patients. "It would have to go through
the same steps in China as it does in the US, so that will involve
clinical studies, getting ethics approval at the hospitals, and
then the situation would have to be reviewed by the Chinese
government,” Ames Gross, founder and president of Pacific Bridge
Capital, tells WIRED. “I don't think any of it sounds very legal.”
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which handles all
international press inquiries, did not respond to a request for
comment.

As well as the initial pain, the chlorine dioxide injections also
appear, the patient says, to have made the cancer worse.

“The tumor shrinks first, then it grows faster than before,” she
says, adding: “My tumor has spread to the skin after injection. I
suspect it is because the chlorine dioxide has broken the vein and
the cancer cells go to the skin area.”

Liu did not agree with this assessment, instead blaming the fact
that the patient had not completed the full course of four
injections within a month, as he typically prescribes.

The patient says that thanks to a WeChat group that Liu set up, she
is also in contact with other people who have had chlorine dioxide
injections. One of the women, who is based in Shenzhen, China, had
at least one injection of chlorine dioxide to treat what was
described as vaginal cancer, but she says she is also suffering
complications, according to screenshots of conversations reviewed
by WIRED.

“After the injection, there was swelling and difficulty urinating,”
the Chinese woman wrote. “It was very uncomfortable.”

Despite having injected a patient in China last August, Liu tells
WIRED, he is not a licensed physician—he calls himself “an
independent inventor and medical researcher.” The treatment, which
he says is “designed to be administered by licensed physicians in
clinical settings,” is so painful that it needs to be given under
general anesthetic.

While Liu’s website says the treatment is being offered at clinics
in Mexico, Brazil, and the Philippines, he tells WIRED that the
treatment is currently only being offered at the CMC Rheinfelden
clinic on the German-Swiss border. Liu features Dr. Wolfgang Renz
from the clinic on his own website as one of his partners; the
clinic itself does not advertise the treatment on its own website.

In conversations on WhatsApp shared with WIRED, a representative of
the clinic named Lena told a prospective patient that it didn’t
advertise the chlorine dioxide procedure because it was “not a
legal treatment.” Lena later wrote that chlorine dioxide was not
referenced on an invoice the clinic sent the same prospective
patient because it is “not a legal treatment.” Lena also told the
prospective patient that they had treated patients from France,
Italy, and the US, according to a recording of a phone call shared
with WIRED. One Italian woman is currently trying to raise money to
fund her treatment in the German clinic on GoFundMe.

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When asked about her comments, Lena told WIRED, “Either [the
patient] misquoted me or my English was not very accurate. I
repeatedly told [the patient] that it is not an approved therapy
and therefore requires very detailed consent and special
circumstances to be eligible for this treatment.” The prospective
patient was told that she would need to bring documents detailing
her prior treatment.

Renz did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Lena also says that patients who have exhausted every other
possible treatment have “the right to be treated with non-approved interventions under strict ethical conditions, full medical
supervision and informed patient consent.” The Federal Institute
for Drugs and Medical Devices, which regulates medical products in
Germany, did not respond to a request for comment, but Liu tells
WIRED that German authorities are investigating a complaint about
the clinic.

Liu now appears laser-focused on making his treatment available in
the US. Despite the lack of clinical data to back up his claims,
Liu claims to have signed up over 100 US patients to take part in a
proposed clinical research program. Liu shared a screenshot with
WIRED including what appeared to be patients’ full names, zip
codes, and the type of cancer they are suffering from. It’s unclear
if any of the patients had agreed to have their information shared
with a journalist.

Liu says he has recruited most of his potential patients via his
own website. “Are You a U.S. Cancer Patient? Join the National
Campaign to legalize a breakthrough therapy,” a popup that
sometimes appears on Liu’s website reads, urging visitors to fill
out a patient advocacy application to potentially become part of a
clinical trial.

One of those who signed up is Sarah Jones, who has been diagnosed
with stage 4 anal cancer that has metastasized to the lymph nodes.
Jones, whose identity WIRED is protecting with a pseudonym, has
already been treated with chemotherapy and drugs like cisplatin and
paclitaxel. The chemotherapy originally caused the tumor to shrink,
but it has since returned and Jones is now seeking alternative
treatments.

“I spend my days treating this disease like a job. Red light
therapy, guided meditations, exercising, eating a keto-strong diet
and researching,” Jones tells WIRED. “This is how I stumbled upon
Liu and his intratumoral injections.”

Despite signing up for a potential trial, Jones understands the
risks but feels as if she is running out of choices. “I am
extremely concerned that there are but a handful of patients and no
data to speak of for this procedure,” Jones says. “I am debating
all of my options and am constantly looking for anything that can
help.”

This sentiment was echoed by Kevin, whose father has neck cancer
and who also signed up as a potential patient for the trial. “If
you're in any cancer patient’s shoes, if you're out of options,
what else do you have to do? You either keep trying new therapies,
or you die.”

Another US-based patient with untreated colon cancer who signed up
on Liu’s website was informed that they should consider traveling
to Germany for treatment, according to a screenshot of an email
response from Liu, shared with WIRED. The email outlined that the
cost would be €5,000 per injection, adding that “typically 4
injections recommended.”

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When the conversation moved to WhatsApp, Liu asked the patient what
size the tumor was. The patient, who was granted anonymity to
protect their privacy, told Liu the tumor was 3.8 centimeters,
according to a screenshot of the WhatsApp conversation reviewed by
WIRED.

Liu responded with inaccurate details and information that the
patient did not share. Liu also referred to a rectal tumor rather
than a colon tumor.

When the patient said they didn’t have the money to travel to
Europe for the treatment and asked about getting it in the US,
referencing the Williams Cancer Institute in Beverly Hills,
California, Liu suggested contacting the clinic directly.

The clinic has indicated its interest in Liu’s unproven procedure
by writing about Liu’s chlorine dioxide injection protocol on its
own website and mentioned it on a post on its Facebook page. Liu
tells WIRED that he has spoken to Jason Williams, director of the
clinic. “He is very interested and is a pioneer in the field of
intratumoral injections,” Liu says. “His clinic is fully capable of implementing my therapy.”

Neither Williams nor his colleague Nathan Goodyear, who Liu also
says he spoke to, responded to repeated emails and phone calls
seeking comment.

Liu also gave WIRED the names of a radiologist in California, an anesthesiologist in Seattle and a physician in Missouri who he
claims to have spoken to about providing his treatment in the US,
but none of them responded to requests for comment.

The Chinese inventor did, however, appear on a livestream with two
US-based doctors, Curtis Anderson, a Florida-based physician and
Mark Rosenberg, who works at the Institute for Healthy Aging. The
discussion, hosted on Liu’s YouTube channel, saw the two doctors
ask about which cancers to treat with the injections, how to buy
chlorine dioxide or even whether it’s possible to make it
themselves.

Rosenberg and Anderson did not respond to requests for comment.

Conducting a clinical trial of a new drug in the US requires
approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Liu initially
claimed to WIRED that “according to Article 37 of the Declaration
of Helsinki and the US Right to Try laws, my therapy is already
legally permissible in the United States.” Legal experts WIRED
spoke to disagree strongly with Liu’s assertions.

“It sounds like Mr. Liu may not understand how the Right to Try Act
or the Declaration of Helsinki work or how they fit within the
broader context in which the FDA regulates investigational drugs,”
Clint Hermes, an attorney with Bass, Berry & Sims, with extensive
expertise in biomedical research, tells WIRED. “If he is under the
impression that the ‘breast cancer trial’ referenced on his website
is sufficient on its own to allow him to market or study his
therapy in the US under right to try and/or the Declaration of
Helsinki, he is mistaken.”

Even advertising the efficacy of an unproven treatment could land
Liu in trouble, according to the American Health Law Association
(AHLA).

“Companies cannot make claims regarding safety or efficacy until
their products have been approved for marketing by the FDA,” Mary
Kohler, a member of the AHLA’s Life Science leadership team, tells
WIRED. “From a quick glance at the website, I see several claims
that FDA’s Office of Prescription Drug Promotion (OPDP) would
likely consider violative as pre-approval promotion even if this
company were in trials that FDA was overseeing.”

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The FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services did not
respond to requests for comment.

When asked about these issues, Liu clarified that he was planning
to initially conduct a 100-person “clinical research program” that
would not require FDA approval, but Liu’s treatment doesn’t appear
to meet any of the most common exemptions that would allow such a
trial to take place, according to the FDA’s own website.

Liu also says he is working with “patient advocates” and leveraging
their local connections to lobby state lawmakers in “liberty-
leaning states” to allow the experimental treatment to be
administered. This would appear to circumvent federal rules. Liu
says that he has yet to make contact with such a lawmaker directly.

While he has no approval from US government agencies or support of
a state or national lawmaker, Liu does have the full backing of
Scott Hagerman, an entrepreneur and former executive with 30 years
experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including a decade
working at Pfizer.

“It’s an unbelievable breakthrough,” Hagerman tells WIRED, adding
that he and his wife have been using oral chlorine dioxide solution
“for some time” as a preventative measure rather than to treat a
specific ailment.

Hagerman’s time in the pharmaceutical industry included over a
decade running a company called Chemi Nutra, which has in the past
received a US patent for a soy-based supplement that addresses
testosterone decline in men. He also says he oversaw teams of
scientists who worked on drug applications to the FDA for oncology
drugs.

Hagerman retired from Chemi Nutra in 2021, and in the intervening
years his comments indicate that he appears to have become entirely disillusioned with the modern pharmaceutical industry, referring to
it as a “drugs cartel” and a “a corrupt entity that is only profit-
driven.” One of the issues Hagerman references is the Covid-19
vaccine based on mRNA technology, which he describes as a “con job”
while also boosting the debunked theory that childhood vaccines are
linked to increasing levels of autism reported in the population.

As a result, he sees Liu’s lack of experience as a positive.

“I would welcome the fact that he's not a doctor, that he's not an
MD, because he's not clouded, jaded, and biased with all kinds of
misguidance that would push them the wrong way,” Hagerman says,
adding, “I'd like to help him establish some network here in the
US, because obviously the US is where the action is.” Hagerman says
he is “100 percent sure” that there would be investors willing to
fund the development of this treatment.

When asked about a timeline to have this procedure legally
available in the US, Hagerman said he hopes it could be achieved
before the end of 2025. Liu, however, thinks it could take slightly
longer, saying that he believes clinical trials will begin in 2026.

https://www.wired.com/story/dangerous-bleach-injecting-cancer-
treatment/

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