Dr. Sennewald Medizintechnik GmbH

Hyperthermia and biological therapies

In gene therapy, hyperthermia appears to be an activator for new forms of biological therapy because gene production occurs a thousand times faster due to the heat (heat-moderated gene therapy).

For immunotherapy and the development of anti-tumor vaccines, hyperthermia plays a critical role. Heat puts cancer cells under stress. This results in the formation of heat shock proteins (e.g., HSP70) and cellular danger signals that in turn activate the immune system. This knowledge is the basis for the many research projects focused on how to develop immunotherapies using these heat shock proteins, and how to combine various vaccination methods with hyperthermia.

With respect to antiangiogenesis, research results indicate that hyperthermia contributes here as well because it blocks the formation of new blood vessels. As a result, it is suitable as an accompanying therapy to angiogenesis inhibitor drug therapy for surviving tumor cells in low perfusion regions.

Immune activation induced by hyperthermia