Hyperthermia (HT) and Cancer

“Those who cannot be cured by medicine can be cured by surgery. Those who cannot be cured by surgery can be cured by fire [hyperthermia]. Those who cannot be cured by fire, they are indeed incurable.” — Hippocrates (479–377 B.C.)

The fact is that most traditional medical cultures have described hyperthermia (HT), or the use of heat, and its utility in healing. The more modern or accepted title today for this field of study is “Thermal Medicine”, but I will refer to it as HT from here forward.

HT is an incredibly fascinating field of medicine that has captured my attention, and has quickly become an intense area of focus and study for me. I now lecture around the world on the topic, with upcoming speaking invitations in Budapest, Rome and Mumbai. I am actively involved in academic research, and am writing (and hopefully soon publishing) papers on the subject. I hope to soon start a clinical study at Integrated Health Clinic on the use of loco-regional HT in the treatment of locally advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma. I am particularly interested in the effects of HT on both the tumour and it’s surrounding matrix or environment. More particularly the effects HT has on the pH, oxygenation, vasculature, ionic exchange, and other factors – and what subsequent benefit these changes have on chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and other treatments we administer at our clinic.

Now back to this quick introduction to this massive and forever interesting topic of HT. Ancient texts from India, China, Egypt, Turkey, the Middle East and other regions of the world, contain pictures of various techniques being used to impart cratesheat – in attempts to treat rounded lesions above and below the skin. What we now call cancer.

Today, the scientific evidence supports the following effects of HT that impart positive implications in the treatment of cancer:

• HT causes direct cytotoxicity (kills cancer cells)
• HT is a known chemotherapy (CT) sensitizer, making chemotherapy more effective
• HT is a known radiation (RT) sensitizer, making radiation more effective
• HT improves tumour oxygenation, which improves chemotherapy and radiation
• HT Induces P53 expression, which causes programmed cell death of cancer cells
• HT stimulates Heat Shock Protien (HSP) expression, a trigger to immune response
• HT improves the delivery of liposomal drugs, making them work better at the site

Evidence to support these statements was presented in a recent keynote lecture I delivered at the Inaugural OncANP Naturopathic Oncology Conference and is available here for your reference.

(Click here or on logo below to view presentation)

In addition, the lecture provides a listing of many positive published randomized trials on the use of HT in human cancer patients for various cancer types. In fact, most trials on the use of HT with chemotherapy and/or radiation have demonstrated a significant improvement to both local tumour control and overall survival.

I invite you to join me as we delve further into each of these points in more depth in future blog posts. I will share the most recent evidence on the use of HT in cancer patients. I look forward to educating more people – who hopefully will utilize HT with their first-line treatment – alongside their chemotherapy and radiation – to improve outcomes.