Hyperthermia Therapy As A General Cancer Treatment

Using Hyperthermia Therapy for Managing Cancer

Hyperthermia treatment therapy is a cancer treatment that is certainly offering hope to many patients. Whether used by itself or in conjunction with other kinds of cancer therapies, hyperthermia has produced promising results for many patients. Based on the fact that cancer cells possess a different structure and makeup as compared to normal healthy body cells, when higher degrees of heat are put on your body, the abnormal cells are damaged as the healthy cells are not. Since this technique is usually more selective than some cancer therapies, it also is likely to produce fewer uncomfortable side effects.

When Should Hyperthermia Be Applied?

In past times, many patients decided to utilize hyperthermia only if conventional cancer treatments had failed. However, today more patients are deciding to combine hyperthermia with other cancer treatments, like low dose radiation. These two therapies work in conjunction with one another, which raises the overall chance that treatment will turn out to be successful. The hyperthermia treatment weakens and often kills the cells of cancer, which may make the radiation treatments more successful. The utilization of both of these therapies in conjunction with one another has been the object of many studies, scientific papers, and clinical trials. You can use it for a number of different cancers, including breast cancers, head and neck tumors, cancer of the prostate, and others.

Hyperthermia and its Uncomfortable Side Effects

As compared to many other cancer therapies, hyperthermia actually has hardly any serious unwanted effects. Patients normally experience few problems, even when the hyperthermia treatment methods are combined with low dose radiation treatments. In most cases, hyperthermia treatments tend not to cause any type of sickness or discomfort, other than some possible reddened skin, irritation or minor discomfort. Treatments are given in a restful environment, and patients leave the office after being treated without feeling bad. You will find minimal stress involved in the treatments. The individual has a reduced overall stress level because there isn't a requirement of any uncomfortable preparations before the treatments. Usually the therapy takes approximately 60 minutes, then the individual is free to go on with any normal day to day activities. Although entire body hyperthermia treatments do tend to have a greater chance of side effects, even these are uncommon. Overall, as long as temperatures are kept inside the recommended ranges, patients generally feel well and normal healthy body cells are not affected.

How's Hyperthermia Applied?

Depending on the size, location and type of cancer cells, there might be different ways of administering the hyperthermia treatments. If a patient carries a cancer that is located close beneath or perhaps in your skin, local heat treatments are generally administered externally. If the cancer has affected a larger area, or exists deeper within the body, regional methods of applying the treatments can be utilized. In these cases, external methods may be used, but sometimes sterile probes are used to be able to concentrate the heat straight to the cancerous cells. In the case of whole body hyperthermia treatments, hot water baths or heat blankets are used to heat the entire body.

Hopefully this article has helped provide some helpful information on hyperthermia and how it continues to be used as an effective alternative cancer treatment.


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If you're looking for information on hyperthermia or an oncologist who uses hyperthermia then you should contact oncologist, James Bicher MD at the Valley Cancer Institute. For more information on James Bicher MD at the Valley Cancer Institute you can visit their website or contact them at (310) 398-0013.