Insights from the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Thermal Medicine

Hello,

I’m Maho Sugino, Director of Immunus Clinic Nihonbashi.

I recently attended the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Thermal Medicine, held at the Nakanoshima Center of Osaka University.

This year’s theme was “Cancer Treatment Without Side Effects.” A wide range of presentations covered topics from basic research on hyperthermia to its combination with radiation therapy, drug therapy, and immunotherapy.

The conference also featured clinical reports from medical institutions that combine hyperthermia with various other treatments. Hearing about their real-world experience gave me a clearer sense of hyperthermia’s potential and made the conference a highly valuable learning experience.

At our clinic, we may also recommend individualized treatment plans that combine hyperthermia with immune checkpoint inhibitors, WT1 cancer vaccines, and other immune cell therapies.

The conference reaffirmed for me how important it is to make the most of each treatment’s strengths and to select the right combination and timing based on each patient’s individual condition.

Hyperthermia is not simply a treatment that “heats the tumor to directly damage cancer cells.”

By heating the tumor, hyperthermia is expected to provide several potential benefits:

○ Improve blood flow and oxygenation around the tumor

○ Create conditions that may help anticancer drugs and radiation therapy work more effectively

○ Make cancer cells more recognizable to the immune system

○ Support the activity of immune cells such as dendritic cells and T cells

○ Help transform an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment into one that is more responsive to the immune system

Cancer cells can create an environment around themselves that makes it difficult for immune cells to enter and function effectively. This is known as the “tumor microenvironment.”

Hyperthermia may help improve this environment and serve as a trigger for reactivating immune responses that have been suppressed by the tumor.

However, cancer cells do not simply remain vulnerable to attack.

Basic research has shown that when hyperthermia activates an immune response, cancer cells may temporarily increase the expression of a molecule called PD-L1 in an attempt to escape that immune attack.

PD-L1 sends a “do not attack” signal to immune cells. In other words, it acts like a brake on the immune system.

This is why the following treatment strategy is attracting increasing attention:

○ First, use hyperthermia to damage cancer cells and create an environment in which the immune system can function more effectively

○ Next, use a PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitor to release the immune brake that the cancer is trying to apply

○ Then, combine WT1 cancer vaccines and other immune cell therapies to enhance the immune system’s ability to recognize and attack cancer cells

Understanding this sequence makes it easier to see why hyperthermia and immunotherapy may work well together.

Rather than viewing each treatment separately, our approach is to use hyperthermia to prepare the foundation for treatment and then combine it with immunotherapy in a way that takes advantage of the changes it produces. Connecting the strengths of different treatments is central to our approach to cancer care.

Research is also exploring whether these immune responses may affect not only the heated area but also the immune system throughout the body, potentially contributing to the future prevention of cancer recurrence and metastasis.

However, as many specialists emphasized at the conference, hyperthermia alone cannot treat cancer or prevent recurrence and metastasis.

It is important to respect and continue appropriate standard treatment while carefully considering which additional treatments to combine, in what order, and at what time, based on the type of cancer, the patient’s condition, and the treatments they have already received.

At our clinic, we also offer BioLEK, a dietary supplement developed under the supervision of our Chairman, Michio Sugino, as an option to help support the immune environment.

We will introduce Biolec and its features in more detail in a future blog post.

By learning about both the latest basic research and clinical experiences reported by other medical institutions, I was able to reaffirm the scientific rationale behind the approach we have long valued at our clinic: appropriately combining immunotherapy and supportive treatments with hyperthermia at the center of the treatment plan.

We will continue to deepen our knowledge and expertise so that we can apply what we have learned to the care of each individual patient.

Finally, on a more personal note…

This was a quick day trip to Osaka.

Since it had been a long time since my last visit, I wanted to enjoy something uniquely Osaka. While waiting for the Shinkansen, I decided to have some takoyaki.

Pork buns from a famous local shop, okonomiyaki, kushikatsu…

Osaka offers so many wonderful local specialties that it was difficult to choose, but this time I settled on piping-hot, freshly made takoyaki.

I took the first Shinkansen of the morning from Tokyo to Osaka. After a full day of learning, piping-hot takoyaki with a cold beer tasted especially wonderful!

Although it was only a short visit, I gained a wealth of new knowledge and also enjoyed Osaka’s unique food culture, making it a truly fulfilling day.

Of course, attending academic conferences is an opportunity to gain the latest medical knowledge, but enjoying the local cuisine is also one of the quieter pleasures of traveling for a conference.

Next time, I hope to return and explore Osaka at a more relaxed pace.

Maho Sugino, M.D., Ph.D.

DirectorImmunus Clinic Nihonbashi