Electro-hyperthermia: a New Paradigm in Cancer Therapy

Abstract

Hyperthermia is a rapidly developing treatment method in tumor-therapy. The classical effect is based on well-focused energy absorption targeting the malignant tissue. The treatment temperature has been considered as the main technical parameter. Unfortunately, the heat-shock protein (HSP) synthesis may considerably suppress the treatment's efficiency, adapting cells to survive the shock.Electro-hyperthermia heats up the targeted tissue by means of electricity, producing less HSP-synthesis in the cells than a usual hyperthermia process. The main idea is to keep the energy absorption in the extracellular liquid and, by heating it, increase the ion-mobility, intensify the metabolic rate of the cells, and destroy the cell membrane before the heat-shock activates the intra-cellular HSP mechanisms.

Strong synergy of heat and modulated electromagnetic field in tumor cell killing

“…The change of the temperature paradigm was urged on a theoretical basis [36,39], supported by clinical observations as well [12,38]. In the light of the present experimental results, the temperature effect alone misleads the discussions [39].…”

On the thermal noise limit of cellular membranes

“…Heating of the ECM could be achieved by capacitively coupled electromagnetic field application within a certain frequency range Szasz et al [2001Szasz et al [ , 2003. Provided that the frequency is low enough, the fields do not readily penetrate the cell membrane and thus the bulk of the energy is deposited within the ECM.…”

Androtherm Application for the Peyronie's Disease

“…The method is based on the paradigm of the energydose control, replacing the single temperature concept [42][43][44]. With this approach the oncothermia returned to the gold standards of the dose concepts in medicine: instead of the parameter, which cannot be regarded as dose (the temperature does not depend on the volume or mass), Oncothermia uses the energy dose, measured in kJ/kg, like Gy is used in the radiation oncology to characterize the dosing of the treatment.…”