Whole Body Hyperthermia

Whole Body Hyperthermia (WBH) is the intentional warming of the whole body for therapeutic purposes. In recent years, interest in it has been renewed, as there have been technological advances that have made it safer, and medical advances that have made it necessary to supplement certain anti-cancer therapies. Total Hyperthermia is currently being used by a growing number of university hospitals in Europe and the United States to treat cancer and other diseases, such as AIDS, Lyme, and autoimmune diseases. Applied with the appropriate indications, it is now a very valuable part of integrated and personalized oncology.

Numerous scientific studies have shown that Whole Body Hyperthermia can cause:

• Maturation of dendritic cells (3).
• Presentation of cancer antigens in CD8 T-lymphocytes by dendritic cells (4).
• Prolonged activation of T-lymphocytes (5).
• Activation of monocytes and macrophages (6).
• Release of tumor necrosis a-factor (TNFa) (6).
• Multiplication of T-lymphocytes and naturally occurring Lymphocytes (Natural Killer Cells) (4,7,8).
• Stimulation of the immune system as a whole, as is done with natural fever (4).

Furthermore, with the increase in body temperature to the level of fever, the production of a special class of proteins as protection against heat, HSP70, is stimulated. These proteins are externalized on the surface of cancer cells (and other diseased cells) and are labeled "candidate for clearance." The immune system detects them as foreign cells and mobilizes the mechanisms of destruction. Controversially, because HSP proteins, which accumulate inside the cell, have a protective effect, the abuse of hyperthermia develops heat resistance. For this reason, Whole Body Hyperthermia is performed at the rate of one session every 3 to 4 weeks, depending on the case.

Whole Body Hyperthermia is now more widely accepted as an effective, non-toxic therapeutic medical practice that complements immunotherapy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, increasing their effectiveness.

Brief historical review

Therapeutic use of heat dates back to Ancient times. Ancient Greek physicians, especially Parmenides and Hippocrates, recognized the healing nature and clinical value of fever. In the 19th century, Busch and later other German physicians were the first to report the recurrence or cure of sarcomas in patients who, incidentally, fell ill with prolonged febrile infectious diseases. Dr. William Coley of New York achieved repetitive results in the treatment of cancer patients by using a mixture of bacterial endotoxins, which has since been known as Coley's Mixed Bacterial Vaccine. He even tried to make stable fever-inducing supplements (1).

Whole Body Hyperthermia Today

Today, the heating of the body from an external source has prevailed and is used, which are infrared lamps, filtered by a layer of water. This provides the advantage that the surface of the skin does not retain radiation, which thus penetrates the inside of the body with ease.

The purpose of full-body hyperthermia is to reproduce the beneficial effects of fever (2). When body temperatures are used at the level of 40-41o C for 1-2 hours, full body hyperthermia is characterized as extreme, while at the level of 39-40o C for 4-8 hours it is characterized as moderate hyperthermia. Mild hyperthermia has no effect on cancer. The main indication for the application of whole body hyperthermia is polymetastatic and generalized cancer, always in combination with chemotherapy or immunotherapy and other adjuvant therapies. The logic of the method is that cancer cells are more heat-sensitive than normal, that heating to fever levels stimulates all aspects of the immune system, and that high temperature facilitates the action of other treatments, especially chemotherapy and immunotherapy.

The reasons why cancer is heat-sensitive are that it is irrigated by abnormal neo-vessels (with abnormal properties), that within the nucleus of the tumors there is normally anaerobic metabolism and metabolic acidosis which tend to reverse with heating, and although the metabolism of tumors is accelerated by heating, the supply of nutrients does not increase accordingly (because neoplasms do not behave normally).