Oncology Research

Thermal Therapy (Hyperthermia) Research

Research into the use of thermal therapy, or heat treatment, technically known as hyperthermia (not to be confused with hypothermia), for cancer is being conducted at the University of Texas Houston Medical School and its teaching hospital, Memorial Hermann Hospital, under the leadership of Joan Bull, M.D.  Thermal therapy treatment has evolved from age-old observations that cancer sufferers who sustained prolonged high fevers due to concomitant infectious disease often witnessed tumor regression or cures.  With modern science and technology, it has become possible to mimic fever by inducing controlled heating of the whole body or individual tissues.  The focus of both our laboratory research and clinical research is the use of systemic heating or whole body thermal therapy to induce a fever-like state in order to treat metastatic cancer.  Our goal is to rapidly translate the results of laboratory research into clinical protocols.