History
The application of heat to treat certain conditions, including possible tumors, has a long history. Ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians used heat to treat breast masses; this is still a recommended self-care treatment for breast engorgement. Medical practitioners in ancient India used regional and whole-body hyperthermia as treatments.
During the 19th century, tumor shrinkage after a high fever due to infection had been reported in a small number of cases. Typically, the reports documented the rare regression of a soft tissue sarcoma after erysipelas (an acute streptococcus bacterial infection of the skin; a different presentation of an infection by "flesh-eating bacteria") was noted. Efforts to deliberately recreate this effect led to the development of Coley's toxin. A sustained high fever after induction of illness was considered critical to treatment success. This treatment is generally considered both less effective than modern treatments and, when it includes live bacteria, inappropriately dangerous.
Around the same period Westermark used localized hyperthermia to produce tumor regression in patients. Encouraging results were also reported by Warren when he treated patients with advanced cancer of various types with a combination of heat, induced with pyrogenic substance, and x-ray therapy. Out of 32 patients, 29 improved for 1 to 6 months.
Properly controlled clinical trials on deliberately induced hyperthermia began in the 1970s.
Read more about this topic: Hyperthermia Therapy
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