[Paper Review] Essential Facts on the History of Hyperthermia and their Connections with Electromedicine

P. Gaś|arXiv (Cornell University)|Oct 2, 2017

Biofield Effects and Biophysics11 references60 citations

TL;DR

A historical review of hyperthermia (thermotherapy) and its links to electromedicine, outlining key moments, parallel developments with cancer treatment, and mixed hopes and disappointments.

ABSTRACT

The term hyperthermia is a combination of two Greek words: HYPER (rise) and THERME (heat) and refers to the increasing of body temperature or selected tissues in order to achieve a precise therapeutic effect. This paper reviews the development of thermotherapy by describing the most important moments in its history. For decades, the development of hyperthermia ran parallel with the development of cancer treatment and had numerous connections with electromedicine. Throughout its history, hyperthermia evoked a number of hopes, brought spectacular successes, but also was the subject of many disappointments.

Motivation & Objective

• Describe the major milestones in the history of thermotherapy (hyperthermia).
• Explain how hyperthermia development paralleled cancer treatment and its connections to electromedicine.
• Discuss the hopes, notable successes, and disappointments surrounding hyperthermia over time.

Proposed method

• Literature-based historical review of thermotherapy.
• Narrative synthesis of key moments and developments in hyperthermia.
• Analysis of connections between hyperthermia and electromedicine across history.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 What are the essential historical milestones in the development of hyperthermia?
• RQ2 How has hyperthermia interacted with and influenced electromedicine and cancer treatment?
• RQ3 What pattern of successes and disappointments characterizes the history of hyperthermia?

Key findings

• Hyperthermia emerged as a concept from basic heat concepts (hyper- and thermē) aimed at therapeutic heating.
• The history of hyperthermia developed in parallel with cancer treatment efforts.
• There were numerous connections between hyperthermia and electromedicine throughout its history.
• Hyperthermia inspired hopes and had notable successes as well as disappointments over time.