PB1452 - Adjuvant Cancer Treatment with Brain-Guided Hyperthermia: Reduction in Inflammation and Angiogenic Biomarkers - Insights from a Pilot Biomarker Study

Background: Hyperthermia (HT) has been proposed as an advancing non-invasive cancer therapy. Meanwhile, HT could also affect platelet, inflammation and heat shock proteins. Brain-Guided Hyperthermia (BgH) technology is a non-invasive method that leverages the brain thermal tunnel (BTT) to monitor and regulate brain temperature. BgH is under clinical investigation for cancer treatment.

Aims: To analyze the changes of cells and cytokine/growth factors reflecting angiogenesis and/or inflammation 24 hours following BgH in cancer.

Methods: Biological assessment was performed on sixteen consecutive cancer patients both before and 24 hours after undergoing BgH treatment. The selected cases had an average age of 62 years and included four cases of prostate cancer, three of breast cancer, two of lymphomas, two of pancreatic cancer, one of sarcoma, one of colon cancer, one of ovarian cancer, one of lung cancer, and one of uterine cancer. We conducted a Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test to assess the comparison of biological parameters before and after BgH treatment.

Results: Evaluation of white blood cells, hemoglobin (Hb) and platelet demonstrated no significant difference before and after BgH treatment (with p=0.53; 0.09 and 0.11 respectively). Sedimentation rate (sed rate), C-reactive protein (CRP) and TNF-α were all significantly decreased after BgH treatment (with p=0.003; 0.0004 and 0.004 respectively). IL-10 was not significantly modified after BgH treatment (p=0.10) while sIL-2R was significantly decreased after BgH treatment (p=0.0002). Finally, VEGF-A, a well know angiogenic growth factor was found significantly decreased after BgH treatment (p=0.003).

Conclusion(s): All in all, our findings demonstrated a significant reduction in biomarkers associated with inflammation, immune modulation, and angiogenesis following BgH treatment establishing an inhibitory environment conducive to suppress tumor growth and angiogenesis. Next step is to explore potential thrombogenic implications of BgH treatment. Additional research is essential to validate potential incorporation of BgH into clinical practice for cancer treatment.