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The use of oxygen at pressures above normal (hyperbaric oxygen) is occasionally used to treat head and neck cancer patients. In this experiment, animals were placed in a hyperbaric chamber while a known cancer-producing agent was applied to their mouths. Other animals were similarly treated but not placed in the hyperbaric chamber. The animals in the hyperbaric chamber were later found to have fewer tumors of the mouth lining, but when a cancer did occur, it was larger. The hyperbaric oxygen is concluded to have a tumor-suppressive effect during the early stage (induction phase) of oral cancer. However, in a later stage (proliferative phase), hyperbaric oxygen appears to stimulate cancer growth.