Total-body hyperthermia (TBH)

Total-body hyperthermia has the role to restart the immune system.Practically all cancer patients have a lower than average core temperature and are unable to develop a fever—thus they are unable to activate their immune system. To reactivate immune function, a controlled fever is induced to artificially heat the body—this process is known as therapeutic fever. Fever-range, total-body hyperthermia (or whole-body hyperthermia) is a nontoxic treatment that is often linked to improved temperature regulation in the body. The treatment is well-tolerated by practically all patients, and can be provided in combination with a range of other therapies.

The goal of hyperthermia in oncology is to induce a fever state that will activate the immune system, and destroy the cancer cells.

The process of total-body hyperthermia

In total-body hyperthermia, short-wave infrared radiation penetrates the skin and warms blood vessels close to the surface of the skin. As the temperature rises in the skin and the blood flowing through the skin, the warmth spreads throughout the body, and core temperature begins to increase. Infrared light is one of the primary means used to heat the body in total-body hyperthermia.

As the heat is gradually increased, the patient begins to perspire but without airflow, evaporation cannot occur. Transpiration and perspiration only lead to cooling if the water can be evaporated. Perspiration is our primary means of maintaining stable body temperature. Without this process, body temperature continues to increase, raising core temperature, and inducing a fever-like state. Once the fever is reached and maintained for one to two hours, the heat is very gradually reduced over the course of another hour or two.

Our approach

Directly after total-body hyperthermia treatment, patients receive an the dendritic cells vaccine. cultured from their own blood. They usually experience mild flu-like symptoms for 6 to 12 hours right after the treatment. This is not the flu—it is the body’s response, which indicates that the immune system is being activated. After these symptoms subside, almost all patients report less pain, and a sense of well-being.

It has been observed that patients who react with flu-like symptoms after the vaccination do clearly better and show more benefit from the therapy than those patients who cannot amount any flu-like symptoms at all. All patients who went in complete remission always experienced flu-like symptoms.