Electro hyper thermic treatment

Dear Rose May:

I did some research on hyperthermia when I was first diagnosed. There is very little in the United States. The science behind the therapy is sound, but the problem is proving a direct correlation between the heat treatment and weakening/killing of tumors. So far, no one has proven an iron-clad connection.

Dr. Joan Bull at the University of Texas science center in Houston has an ongoing study combining hyperthermia with gemcitabine. You would have to go to the Houston medical center to be treated. Here is a link to her website: http://www.uth.tmc.edu/thermaltherapy/JoanBull.html

The Cancer Treatment Centers of America offer hyperthermia, but only for “surface” cancers like melanoma, etc. Any cancer/tumor which is more than 1 cm below the surface of the skin is not appropriate for the kind of hyperthermia they offer. (They use a diathermy-type machine, which does not penetrate very deeply into the body.)

There is supposedly a clinic in California which offers hyperthermia treatment, but I could not find any information about them.

I actually devised my own home hyperthermia treatment when I started my chemo a year ago. I used Dr. Bull’s protocol as my model. 48 hours after receiving my chemotherapy, I sit in the jaccuzzi for 45 minutes to an hour. I take my temperature every 5 minutes with a thermometer, and I can usually get my body temperature up to around 101 degrees. I drink lots of water while doing this, and never do it alone in case the unforeseen happens. The theory goes that 48 hours after chemo infusion, the lesions are at their most vulnerable, and the hyperthermia adds more stress to the tumors thus potentiating the effect of the chemo.

Heating up your body like this can be dangerous!!! So please, anyone else out there who is considering doing their own therapy, be careful and consult your physician to see if it is safe for you to spend extended periods of time in a hot tub.

Offered with caution,

Violarob in Texas