The use of hyperthermia is fast becoming a standard of care for many cancer types. Most recently it has become a standard of care, alongside current conventional treatments, for sarcomas (bone cancer) in the U.S. It is standard in Japan for head and neck cancer, and a standard for cervical cancer in Holland. For those ND's treating cancer patients, knowing what this treatment is and how it works will allow them to provide their patients with the most current information on best practices.
The use of heat is as fundamental a treatment in naturopathy as any herb or other element. Heat has been espoused as a cancer treatment by ancient Indian, Chinese, Roman and Greek physicians as a primary treatment. This lecture will provide an introduction to the use of hyperthermia within an integrative oncology setting. Although new in North America, hyperthermia had been used and studied extensively in Europe and Asia. It is now gaining acceptance in North America, as an effective integrative therapy with minimal toxicity. In this lecture we will first review the historical evolution of clinical hyperthermia, from the times of Hippocrates to modern-day advancements. This will be followed by thoroughly examining the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in clinical hyperthermia, including p53, heat shock proteins and B-caterin. We will explore several recent landmark studies. A few of these studies used hyperthermia as a mono-therapy, while the majority employed the known radio-sensitizing and chemo-sensitizing effests of hyperthermia. A number of case studies will also be presented, some from Europe and some from our clinical experience here in BC. We will also learn the details of a study being conducted at the author's clinic in the near future on the use of oncotherm locoregional hyperthermia (OLRH) in locally advanced pancreatic cancer. OLRH has been used in Germany for 24 years, is currently accepted in dozens of countries thoughout Europe and Asia, and has successfully been incorporated into the author's treatment protocols.
Dr. Parmar is a leader in the field of Integrative Oncology in Canada. He and his wife, Dr. Karen Parmar, launched the Integrated Health Clinic in 2000. Their clinic is now one of the largest integrative clinics in the country. Dr. Parmar was the first Canadian Naturopathic Physician to become a Fellow of the American Board of Naturopathic Oncology (FABNO) and to create an Integrative Oncology service within a chemotherapy hospital setting. He has been a consulting physician at the Lions Gate Hospital chemotherapy clinic since 2008.
He has been attending conferences on hyperthermia in oncology for many years--successfully incorporating a Radio-Frequency Loco-Regional Hyperthermia (Oncothermia) treatment in his clinic over the past two years. Dr. Parmar is currently an investigator in two studies, the first is on the use of IV asborbic acid in an oncology setting; the other is to start in the near future at his clinic on the use of Oncothermia in locally advanced pancreatic cancer. He is an active licensed member of the CNPBC, ONCANP and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He is on the Editorial Board of the International Oncothermia Journal and serves on the Board of the Oncology Association of Naturopathic Physicians, Chairing their Education Committee.