Whole Body Hyperthermia

Are you under the impression that Americans have the most advanced medical care delivery that is available? If you think that, you are mistaken.

I would like you to become knowledgeable about Whole-Body Hyperthermia (Fever Therapy) and wonder, as I do, why it isn't available in every oncology department in every hospital. Fever Therapy, in contrast to chemotherapy, can destroy cancer cells without destroying healthy cells, therefore, it does no harm to the patient. Isn't this what cancer research is looking for?

The fact that heat destroys cancer cells is an accepted fact.

We have to examine the conditions which the medical community uses to decide whether or not a therapy should be added to the accepted protocol. The individual doctor is not in a position to advance new ideas. He is usually too busy providing direct care to the patient. The final determination is up to research centers and our government agencies, primarily the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Fever Therapy has been known and used for about the last 40 years and possibly more.

A Dr. Robert Pettigrew treated patients in Scotland by using a clumsy method to raise the temperature to 110 degrees. Instead of failure, tumor reduction took place so rapidly the kidneys couldn't eliminate the dead cells fast enough. He referred to this problem as "kidney crunch." Today, Fever Therapy is much more sophisticated and simpler to use. Body temperature is usually raised only to 107.5 degrees and intravenous fluid is administered to help flush out the dead cells through a catheter in the bladder.

Dr. Robert Berman, an anesthesiologist at St. Johns Hospital in Far Rockaway, read about Dr. Pettigrew's work and started his own experiments. He subsequently developed water-filled blankets to raise body temperature and used light anesthesia to keep the patients comfortable during the procedure. The hospital only allowed him to treat severely advanced patients. The response was favorable, in that, the patients gained additional time, and usually pain alleviation, but unfortunately, the patients were too debilitated to reverse the condition completely. Research was also done at the National Cancer Institute by Joan Bull, M.D. She was also able to get tumor and pain reduction for advanced patients. But, again, she was only allowed to help very advanced patients.

Eventually, I introduced two oncologists, Dr. Donald Cole and Dr. John Pung, to Whole Body Hyperthermia. They subsequently treated patients with Systemic Thermotherapy at the American International Hospital in Zion, Illinois, but the work was discontinued, I believe, because it was not covered by insurance. In my view, it is this lack of insurance coverage that is holding back the widespread use of Fever Therapy as hospitals prefer to have bills paid by third-party payers. I called Blue Cross to see about third-party payment and they said as long as FDA classified Hyperthermia as experimental, they were unable to pay for the treatment.

Fever Therapy has been classified by the FDA as experimental in spite of the fact that the agency knows that heat can destroy cancer cells.

As long as FDA maintains that classification, as it has for a long time, insurance carriers have no obligation to cover the therapy as a routine cancer protocol.

Understanding why the FDA considers Fever Therapy experimental after all the years it has been in use is quite puzzling. We automatically assume that the role of a government health agency is to advance any health program that will improve the well-being of people in need of health care. Well that doesn't seem to be its actual service.

I took the time to call FDA to see if there was a sound explanation for the experimental classification and to learn what the procedure was to upgrade the status of Whole body Hyperthermia so that it could be made available and paid for by insurance carriers for the benefit of cancer patients. I am sure it will be no surprise to learn that I could not reach a person who understood what I was talking about and I'm still trying.

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