Introduction

Abstract

Anticancer effects of elevated (noncauterizing) temperature were first observed in ancient Egyptian times (Oleson and Dewhirst 1983). Hippocrates (460–377 B.C.) later incorporated fever therapy into a homeopathic approach to disease (i.e., treating a disease with a symptom of that disease). In the fourth century, Refus of Ephesus advocated the use of fever induction to treat malignant diseases (Kluger 1980). In the nineteenth century tumor regressions accompanying high fevers were reported both by Busch and Bruns (Busch 1866; Bruns 1888). At the end of the nineteenth century, Coley reported an anecdotal series of cancer patients who responded to fevers induced by erysipelas and bacterial endotoxins (Coley 1893; Nauts et al. 1953). In 1935, Warren induced “artificial fevers” using diathermy in conjunction with incandescent light bulbs and also described antineoplastic activity (Warren 1935).