Cancer and Heat

I am a little doubtful about the answer on curing cancer with heat, but perhaps somebody could explain. First of all 108 degrees F seems to low. At least major near surface portions of the body can be raised above 108 without harmful effects. Bathwater can be hotter. If 108 killed cancer, then we could certainly kill skin cancer. The answer did not say how long the cancer had to be maintained a 108, so maybe the length of time is too long??

I’d always understood the major problem with a fever at this temperature is brain damage, so if you could keep the brain cooled, this should work for the rest of the body??

Anyhow, did you really mean 108 degrees F or was this a typo?

Linkage:

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a971031b.html

Kith

The article does clearly state 107.6 deg Fahrenheit. It does not talk about duration.

I had the same thought about fever and brain temperature. That indicates you wouldn’t want to use a fever to induce the temperature - too hard to keep the brain cool while frying the rest of the body. Not to mention it probably feels miserable - having just been through a bout of 102.9 deg F, I wouldn’t want to be conscious for higher. :wink: The techniques tried use other methods for local heating rather than subjecting the whole body.

There is information on a thermal treatment for prostate cancer at
http://www.ablationtech.com

It’s in phase 3 clinical trials.

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