“Only cancer cells were killed”… The new treatment method which is more effective than radiation
“Reading My Body” from Jeong sim-gyo
Professor Jang Hong-seok's team at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital observed 40 patients with metastatic abdominal lymph nodes
High-frequency that generates 460,000 waves per second, selectively killed cancer cells
A photo showing the area of cancer lesions reduced after treatment (right) compared to before (left) high-frequency hyperthermia treatment. /Photo = Excerpt from a paper by Professor Jang Hong-seok's research team
'High-frequency hyperthermia', which kills cancer by raising the body temperature to 'the temperature that cancer hates (40-43 degrees)', is considered one of the most innovative cancer treatments. Among these, the research results from Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, one of the 'Big 5' hospitals in Korea, showed that cancer patients who received high-frequency hyperthermia had their tumors reduced more quickly and effectively than patients who received radiation therapy, drawing attention.
According to the Organizing Committee of the International Virus Research Alliance (IVRA) on the 24th, the research team of Professor Jang Hong-seok of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital collected computed tomography (CT) images of a total of 40 patients with metastatic abdominal lymph node treatment, including 20 patients who received high-temperature hyperthermia therapy and 20 patients who received radiation therapy alone, from January 2019 to the end of March 2022. Then, they evaluated the treatment effect by comparing the changes in the index (Hounsfield Units·HU) value that observes the change in tumor necrosis before and after treatment.
HU is a density value assigned to each pixel of a CT (computed tomography) image, and is a numerical expression of the density of tissue. The number is assigned based on how much X-ray each tissue absorbs, and this value can be used to quantitatively determine the properties of the tissue.
The high-temperature hyperthermia group showed an average HU value of 58.95, a decrease of 9.05% (-8.47 HU) after treatment. On the other hand, the conventional radiation therapy group showed a decrease of only 0.57% (-0.41 HU) to 71.42. The results of this study were recently published in the international academic journal 'PLOS ONE'.
High-frequency hyperthermia treatment stably generates deep heat by generating heat by the body itself. This increases the body temperature, and the principle is to raise the deep heat (temperature of body tissue) to 40-43 degrees, which cancer cells cannot withstand, and necrosis of cancer is resulted. /Image provided by AdipoLABs
Hyperthermia is a treatment method that delivers heat of 40 degrees or higher deep into the body to damage only tumor cells, not affecting normal cells. Normal cells are damaged from heat of 44 degrees or higher, but malignant tumors (cancer) cannot withstand the heat at 40 to 43 degrees and die.
In this study, Professor Jang Hong-seok compared and evaluated the changes in tumors that occurred during 'high-temperature hyperthermia' using the medical high-frequency hyperthermia device called 'REMISSION' and 'radiotherapy' at low temperatures and medium doses for patients receiving treatment for metastatic abdominal lymph nodes, and hyperthermia was found to be more effective in killing cancer. According to AdipoLABs, the developer of REMISSION 1°C, the device generates deep heat (temperature of body tissues) as high frequency generates waves at 460,000 times per second.
When heat is generated, normal tissues disperse the heat by circulating blood through surrounding blood vessels dilating. However, cancer cells have a weak ability to expand blood vessels, so they are unable to disperse heat and eventually become necrotic.
Professor Jang Hong-seok said, "We studied data on hyperthermia treatment for about six years targeting terminal cancer patients for whom other treatments were ineffective," and "the core of the paper is that hyperthermia treatment can be more effective than radiation therapy because it causes tumor mass necrosis much faster."
He continued, "If you look at papers on hyperthermia published in the past 10 years, our country is the only one with such result," but added, "However, since there are many different types of cancer, much more data needs to be collected to verify the usefulness of hyperthermia."
AdipoLABs CEO Han Sung-ho, who developed the REMISSION 1°C used in this study, is explaining the principle of high-frequency hyperthermia to a reporter. He said, “Currently, most of them are used as non-covered treatments in domestic nursing hospitals,” and “It can raise body temperature stably to 42 degrees without side effects such as burns or muscle damage. The goal is to use high-frequency hyperthermia in the future not only for cancer treatment but also for cancer prevention.” / Photo = Reporter Jeong Sim-gyo
It is known that hyperthermia therapy has the effects of increasing the body's immunity, promoting metabolism, and relieving pain. However, large-scale clinical trials have not yet been conducted. This is because multidisciplinary treatment (collaboration between various departments) to accumulate patient clinical data at general hospitals is not yet active, and it is difficult to obtain approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) for sharing hyperthermia-related data between medical institutions. Currently, among the Big 5 hospitals, only Seoul St. Mary's Hospital has applied high-frequency hyperthermia therapy to cancer treatment.
However, the number of hospitals introducing high-frequency hyperthermia therapy to their treatment sites is gradually increasing. Seung-mo Yoo, the director of Yesan Myongji Hospital, emphasized, “Seven out of ten terminal cancer patients who were given a three-month life expectancy at university hospitals have survived for more than two years and their quality of life has tremendously improved.” He added, “Currently, treatment begins after cancer is diagnosed and according to the stage of the disease, but in the future, the method of cancer prevention and treatment needs to change to ‘management’ with hyperthermia therapy before the cancer develops.”
Professor Kim Eui-shin, a world-renowned authority on cancer treatment and a lifetime professor at the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas, emphasized at the 8th IVRA 2025 International Medical Conference held at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital on the 22nd, "Cancer is difficult to cure as it continues to evolve, so it is necessary to use hyperthermia appropriately." He said, "Cancer occurs throughout the body, so we cannot continue with highly toxic chemotherapy, and targeted therapy also has its limits." He added, "Cancer cannot be cured with hyperthermia alone, but it can limit the growth of cancer, increase immunity, and reduce side effects, so the key is how to use it appropriately."
simkyo@mt.co.kr
