For Informed People Using Alternative Treatments

Geewhiz, if it is so compelling, why don't you just post it instead of requesting WYO to PM it? Legitimate research isn't secretive.

Thank you, Wyo, for the link to the fact sheet.  I hadn't realized that local hyperthermia was an option. 

Geewhiz, would you please post links to a couple of studies you think we'd find helpful?  Thanks.

Sorry, Geewhiz.  I wrote my post before you posted your last one, did not see it until just now.  I am certainly interested in hyperthermia, excited that it is actually being utilized, support your exploration of that treatment, and hope you will let us know how it is working for you, so we can continue to support you.  At the same time, I hope someone out there will support some of  the rest of us in our request for information about this treatment.

Thanks, Momine.  I'm at work, so I quickly scanned the article but it sounds so promising.  I can't help but wonder how the heat mechanism dovetails with chemo and rads.  It sounds as though it might be most effective in combination. 

I support you geewiz!   As I think conventional medicine is seriously lacking I like to hear new ideas.  IMO it is up to each individual to research things and make the best informed decisions for their OWN body (i.e.research on their own - it is not your job to research things for me IMO).  Thanks for your posts, as like I said before, I have never heard of this before

Hi - Wow, let me just stick around here to get burned...no need to travel to Canada for hyperthermia. Sorry ladies, I don't spend a lot of time on the boards. I work. Looks like I missed some fireworks.

I am not, and never will, try to impose my treatment choices on others. And as I confirmed my flights to Canada, I was anxious and came to the boards for support with the 3 minutes of time I had at work. I don't have all the answers, and all my bloodwork etc is being reviewed and I have a conference call later this week to get any of my last minute questions answered. Hyperthermia also boosts the immune system - specifically Natural Killer cells are increased. Some immune benefits are long term, some short.

A good friend of mine is a clinical trial designer for one of the major drug companies.  The placebo effect is real and dramatically effects outcomes.  The patient needs to believe in the treatment. And not everything works for everybody. I will post a few snippets then move along. We are planning to stay in Whistler for skiing for awhile after treatment. We are going bobsledding and dogsledding too with the kids. I am looking forward to all of it. Perhaps I will check back next month after it's all in the rearview mirror.

 So...in context, Dr. Mark Dewhirst of Duke University has been funded for the past 29 years to study various modalities. He most recently had a $19 million dollar grant from the National Institute of health renewed over a 5 year period to study specifically hyperthermia. The grant was sadly not renewed with the new administration budget cuts...  though 15 of the 17 Phase 3 clinical trials yielded positive results for hyperthermia as a cancer treatment modality. Research does continue however all across the US. References are below. Loco-regional hyperthermia is even covered by medicare. Liposomal and and nanoparticle research is fascinating to follow.

Here's a published blurb on Dr Dewhirst:

 Dr Dewhirst and his team now head a national hyperthermia research organization. Mark W. Dewhirst, DVM, PhD, FASTRO, FAAAS is the Gustavo S. Montana Professor of Radiation Oncology and Director of the Radiation Oncology Program of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Dewhirst has research interests in tumor hypoxia, angiogenesis, hyperthermia and drug transport and has had NIH funding to study these subjects for more than 30 years. He has >500 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters and reviews. His works have been cited more than 15,000 times in the literature and his H-index is 63. He has given named lectures at the University of Western Ontario, Thomas Jefferson University and the New Zealand Cancer Society and was awarded the Failla Medal and Lecture at the Radiation Research Society in 2008, the Eugene Robinson award for excellence hyperthermia research in 1992 and a similar award from the European Society for Hyperthermic Oncology in 2009. He is a Senior Editor of Cancer Research and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Hyperthermia. He has mentored 20 graduate students, over dozen postdoctoral fellows and many medical students. His skill in mentoring has been recognized by the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Medical Physics Graduate Training program and the School of Medicine.

And while the FDA approved the compassionate use of whole body hyperthermia units, the universities that bought the machines did not maintain records in a manner conducive to a clinical trial. They are just treating, and not researching.

On another thread there were a few really important notes (I mostly frequent the Clinical Trials thread here -cp418 is amazing keeping the boards current). I also go through PUBMED when I see something referenced and I'd like to see more data. One researcher did a very powerful video with playdoh illustrating cell morphology. In a nutshell...they need more funding. They cannot continue without funding. They found a protein they think is responsible for mets...but they need funding to continue their research. Another researcher did a press release that all of their clinical trials and research is to be published and all notes etc will be made available to the public. It was noted that much of what the public gets access to is edited, and that trial data is often 1-2 years behind. So this will be really interesting to follow.

Here is some more research to take a look at... Dr.'s Strebel, Scott and Bull have excellent research that I try to follow.

Alexander HR Jr. Isolation Perfusion. In DeVita VT, Lawrence TS, Rosenberg SA, eds. Cancer Principles and Practice of Oncology, 8th edition. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams, & Wilkins: 2008: 701-710.

Benjamin R, Pisters PWT, Helman LJ, et al. Sarcomas of Soft Tissue. In Abeloff MD, Armitage JO, Niederhuber JE, Kastan MB, McKenna WG, eds. Abeloff’s Clinical Oncology, 4th edition. Philadelphia: Churchill Livingstone: 2008: 2009-2056.

Brennan MF, Singer S, Maki RG, O'Sullivan B. Sarcomas of the soft tissue and bone. In DeVita VT, Lawrence TS, Rosenberg SA, eds. Cancer Principles and Practice of Oncology, 8th edition. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams, & Wilkins: 2008: 1774-1775.

Bull JM, Scott GL, Strebel FR, et al. Fever-range whole-body thermal therapy combined with cisplatin, gemcitabine, and daily interferon-alpha: a description of a phase I-II protocol. Int J Hyperthermia. 2008;24:649-662.

Dariush S, Nicolae V. (2011). Cancer Treatment with Hyperthermia, Current Cancer Treatment - Novel Beyond Conventional Approaches, Prof. Oner Ozdemir (Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-307-397-2, InTech, Accessed at www.intechopen.com/books/current-cancer-treatment-novel-beyond-conventionalapproaches/cancer-treatment-with-hyperthermia on June 13, 2013

Dewhirst MW, Jones E, Samulski T, et al. Hyperthermia. In Kufe DW, Bast RC, Hait WN, et al, eds. Cancer Medicine. 7th ed. Hamilton, Ontario: BC Decker Inc: 2006: 549-561.

Duprat Neto JP, Oliveira F, Bertolli E, et al. Isolated limb perfusion with hyperthermia and chemotherapy: predictive factors for regional toxicity. Clinics (Sao Paulo). 2012;67:237-241.

Gillams A. Tumour ablation: current role in the liver, kidney, lung and bone. Cancer Imaging. 2008;8 Spec No A:S1-5.

Lewinsky BS, Zimmerman RP. Radiation Therapy: An Overview of Recent Advances and Future Innovations. In Silberman H, Silberman AW, eds. Principles and Practice of Surgical Oncology. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams, & Wilkins: 2010: 219-230.

National Cancer Institute, Clinical Trials. Hyperthermia (search). Accessed at www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials/search on June 13, 2013.

National Cancer Institute. Hyperthermia in Cancer Treatment: Questions and Answers. Accessed at www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Therapy/hyperthermia on June 13, 2013.

National Cancer Institute. Radiofrequency Ablation Making Inroads as Cancer Treatment. In NCI Cancer Bulletin, July 19, 2005, Vol 2 No 29. Accessed at www.cancer.gov/aboutnci/ncicancerbulletin/archive/2005/071905/page3 on June 13, 2013.

National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Hyperthermia: Using Heat to Treat Cancer. Accessed at www.nccn.com/component/content/article/60-treatment/932-hyperthermia-treatment.html on June 17, 2013.

NIH Clinical Center. Radiofrequency Thermal Ablation as Tumor Therapy. Accessed at www.cc.nih.gov/drd/references.html on June 13, 2013.

Palazzi M, Maluta S, Dall’Oglio S, Romano M. The role of hyperthermia in the battle against cancer. Tumori. 2010;96:902-910.

Sulyok I, Fleischmann E, Stift A, et al. Effect of preoperative fever-range whole-body hyperthermia on immunological markers in patients undergoing colorectal cancer surgery. Br J Anaesth. 2012;109:754-761.

Szasz A. Hyperthermia, a modality in the wings. J Can Res Ther. 2007;3:56-66.

1. Meier B: Rare cancer treatments, cleared by F.D.A. but not subject to scrutiny. New York Times, December 3, 2013.

2. U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Medical Devices: BSD-2000 Hyperthermia System – H090002. Last updated September 6, 2013. Available at www.fda.gov. Accessed December 20, 2013.

3. U.S. Food and Drug Administration: BSD-2000 Hyperthermia System – H090002 Approval letter. November 18, 2011. Available at www.fda.gov. Accessed December 20, 2013.

4. National Cancer Institute: Hyperthermia in cancer treatment. NCI fact sheet. Reviewed August 31, 2011. Available at www.cancer.gov. Accessed December 20, 2013.

5. van der Zee J, Gonzalez DG, van Rhoon GC, et al: Comparison of radiotherapy alone with radiotherapy plus hyperthermia in locally advanced pelvic tumours: A prospective, randomised, multicenter trial. Lancet 355:1119-1125, 2010.

6. Colombo R, Da Pozzo LF, Salonia A, et al: Multicentric study comparing intravesical chemotherapy alone and with local microwave hyperthermia for prophylaxis of recurrence of superficial transitional cell carcinoma. J Clin Oncol 21:4270-4276, 2003.

7. Issels RD, Lindner LH, Verweij J, et al: Neo-adjuvant chemotherapy alone or with regional hyperthermia for localised high-risk soft-tissue sarcoma: A randomised phase 3 multicentre study. Lancet Oncol 11:561-570, 2010.

SENDING WARM HUGS TO YOU, GEEWHIZ!!!!!  Keep us posted! XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXOOOOOOOOO

I considered Hypothermia as well...just had to consider cost for everything...I would not rule it out in the future.

Geewhiz,

Thank you so much for all the info you provided. I hope all the best for you on your journey to Canada and doing hyperthermia. I do believe in it myself. For years before my diagnosis, I would always get sick during the winter that would last a few months. It went through stages starting from sore throat, then having mucus, then nonstop coughing. I always wondered why I do not get any fever during the sickness. The reason was that my immune system is weak and does not even attempt to fight the disease. If I had fever, my sickness would not last that long. I was very happy last year when I got sick and had a high fever. I did not even attempt to take any medicine to bring the fever down.  We should not try to criticize BC sisters for their choice of treatment. All the publications documented never work for everyone. Sometimes, if someone believes in something, it works because our minds are more powerful to make it work. I just wish the best for everyone here and I don't care what treatment they are choosing. We are here to share information and make our own choices. Thank you so much for listening to me.  

Geewhiz,

Please come back and share your experience with all of us. I am very interested in it.

I just met my oncologist at Sloan. She told me hyperthermia is still in trial and for met cancer to other parts of the body. She said she would not use it on me.

And Sloan has integrative doc...I already made an appt.

Wow that is great that the Dr. emailed you back geewiz!  I am rooting for you!

geewhiz - Thanks for the information, and best wishes for the treatment!

oh it's about tamoxifen as i promised to ask the onco about it.

so i asked the onco what does tamxo do and what happen if i stop taking it after 5 or 10 years. she said tamxo can block er/pr so this way it blocks cancer cells, it puts them to sleep and kills them. but the effect of tamxo will last may be 5 yr after stop the treatment based on statistic/experience. and it's not magic pills. 

she told me her goal was to put my recurrent rate to under 10%. basically for me, chemo+radiation+tamxo will put me under that 10%. now that i am writing all these down...wow after doing all that damage to my body and i still have that 10%??!! this is such a big fat failure in terms of curing cancer. 

yorkie - one onco said my recurrent rate is less than 50% if do nothing and another said it's more than 50% if do nothing. bc of my tumor size, they can't give me an actual %. does it make sense? i was confused while others got a #% and i didn't.

i read the canceractive.com articles, that having surgery on the 2nd half of the cycle have a less recurrence, and i also had my onco score which isn't low but in the gray zone. i don't know. but i read the book what your doctors might not tell you about BC really helped me to make my decision.