Hyperthermia: An Alternative Cancer Treatment That Works

Although there are certainly a lot of conventional cancer therapies that can be helpful, one should not immediately discount the effectiveness of alternative cancer therapies such as hyperthermia. In some cases, patients turn to alternative therapies to avoid the uncomfortable and sometimes debilitating side effects of some traditional cancer treatments. However, in other cases patients are simply looking for complementary therapies which can assist and increase the effectiveness of traditional treatments. In both cases, researchers and doctors have shown that hyperthermia can be a very viable therapy option when fighting cancer.

Battling Common Alternative Therapy Misconceptions

When some people hear the words "alternative cancer therapies," they immediately think of unscientific practices, ineffective treatments, and sometimes downright medical quackery. Because of these common misconceptions, legitimate alternative cancer therapies are sometimes immediately dismissed by people. Unfortunately, this means that many people who could possibly be helped by cancer therapies such as hyperthermia miss out on the opportunity to discover how effective they can actually be. Sometimes, such as is the case with hyperthermia, a great deal of study, research and even scientific clinical trials have been devoted to testing and investigating the therapy. In the fight against cancer, one should never overlook a possible beneficial therapy just because it doesn't fit the standard treatment protocol. For those who are battling cancer, it's vital to search for every possible advantage that can be used to weaken and kill cancer cells. It's important to remember that even if a treatment doesn't use radiation or toxic chemicals, it can still be effective. In fact, sometimes it can be even more effective, especially if it is combined with other cancer treatments.

Using a Targeted Approach Against Cancer

One of the problems with many of the standard cancer treatments is that healthy body cells can be damaged right along with the cancerous ones. Although chemotherapy and radiation treatments are designed to minimize this damage as much as possible, there are still significant problems and side effects that can occur. However, when using a cancer therapy such as hyperthermia, there can be far fewer detrimental side effects. Hyperthermia is based on the fact that tumor cells, because they are abnormal and disorganized, simply cannot tolerate heat in the same fashion as normal cells. As a result, when hyperthermia treatments are administered, the cancerous cells are weakened or even killed, while the surrounding healthy cells remain undamaged.

Augmenting Traditional Cancer Treatments

Although hyperthermia has been shown to have the ability to weaken and kill cancer cells, studies have shown that these therapies can also be beneficial when combined with other treatments, such as radiation and chemotherapy. Because heat can increase the blood flow to an area, it can help to ensure that the tumor gets the full benefit of chemotherapy treatments. Radiation treatments can also be more effective when the cancer cells have been weakened by hyperthermia. Instead of relying on only one cancer treatment method, better results are often obtained by combining both traditional as well as alternative cancer therapies.