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Hyperthermia Therapy for Cancer

Oasis of Hope

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Oasis of Hope Hospital offers a comprehensive range of standard and alternative cancer therapies to its patients in Tijuana, Mexico. The medical team at Oasis of Hope Hospital integrates such methodologies as hyperthermia cancer therapy, which interrupts the growth and alters the environment of tumors.

Hyperthermia is defined as the raising of body temperature, either at a localized or a systemic level. When the temperature of body tissues rise, the proteins in cell membranes begin to disintegrate and allow for the breakdown of the cell itself, which can cause cell death in the absence of effective cooling properties. Because cancer cells have an inhibited cooling mechanism, hyperthermia can damage tumor structures with minimal damage to surrounding tissues.

Hyperthermia also has the ability to make tumor cells more susceptible to oxidative therapies, which include radiation and certain forms of chemotherapy. Some cancer treatment centers are now taking advantage of this process by exposing tumors to relatively high temperatures using localized delivery techniques, including radiofrequency ablation, to best restrict the heat to cancerous tissues. Larger affected areas may receive regional or even whole-body hyperthermia, though physicians must be exceedingly careful in these situations to prevent damage to healthy cell proteins.