New Hyperthermia Cancer Treatment

Hyperthermia is an alternative cancer treatment in which body tissue is heated up to 113 degrees Fahrenheit to damage and destroy cancer cells while leaving healthy tissue virtually unharmed. Treatment is commonly administered in combination with other cancer treatments--radiation therapy, chemotherapy or biological therapy. Hyperthermia treatment is not a standard cancer treatment, although in 2010, clinical trials were ongoing at Duke University's Hyperthermia Program to prove its safety and efficacy.

History

• Heat therapy was used by the Egyptians more than 7000 years ago to treat tumors. The Greeks also recognized the curative effects of heat After the Renaissance, it was noted in Europe that tumors shrunk in patients with smallpox, flu and malaria for example, infectious diseases that exposed patients to high fevers. Similar findings were noticed by physicians and scientists over the next two centuries. By 1984, in the United States, Dr. James I. Bicher had gathered enough evidence for the Food and Drug Administration to approve hyperthermia as a medical treatment.

What is Hyperthermia?

• Cancer cells are sensitive to heat. High temperatures deplete a cancer cell's oxygen supply, thus destroying its ability to metabolize, eventually shrinking and killing it. Killing and shrinking cancer cells may shrink tumors, aiding in a patient's recovery or sending the cancer into remission. Hyperthermia is used to treat many types of cancers: lung, liver, cervix and breast for example, in combination with other treatments.

Methods of Hypothermia Cancer Treatment

• There are several ways of administering heat to a patient during hypothermia treatment, including via ultrasound, radio frequency and microwave. There are also different methods of administering treatment depending upon the specifics of a patient's cancer. Local hypothermia targets a small area of the body--a tumor for example--delivering energy to an exact location. Local treatment is used to treat cancers just below the skin, near body cavities and also deep within the body.
  Regional hypothermia is used to heat larger areas of tissue, for example, cancers that take place in the extremities, organs and cavities. Whole body hypothermia is used in cases where cancers have metastasized, and targets the entire body, elevating its temperature up to 108 degrees.

Side Effects and Risks

• As long as a patient's overall body temperature remains below 111 degrees, most body tissue is unharmed. However, in cases where the body exceeds the desired temperature, burns, blisters, pain, blood clotting and tissue swelling can occur. Whole body hypothermia brings greater risk, including cardiac arrest, although diarrhea, nausea and vomiting are its more common side effects.

Research

• Clinical trials in 2010 at Duke University's Hyperthermia Program, the largest in the world, were focusing on hyperthermia in combination with other cancer treatments and methods to improve hyperthermia techniques. Elizabeth A. Repasky, Ph.D., president of the Society of Thermal Medicine said that hyperthermia treatment will be used more frequently in the future to boost chemotherapy and radiation treatment, although she does not predict hyperthermia to replace such treatment. The Center for Hyperthermia in Hannover, Germany claims that patients have turned to hyperthermia when previously administered chemotherapy or radiation treatment failed.