TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates to systems and methods for treating blood.

BACKGROUND

Hyperthermia has been used to treat certain maladies, including killing cancer cells. Certain methods and procedures have had limited and poor results in extending patient life and/or their quality of living. For example, certain therapies only target a certain area of the body. As another example, blood removed from the body is heated to higher than a desired temperature and then returned back to the body (in some cases cooled to a lower temperature than desired).

Suggested forms of induced hyperthermia suffer from the need of major advancements and significant changes in order to have meaningful results and thus cannot be used as a standard of care for treating cancers by various medical and scientific communities.

SUMMARY

According to some embodiments, a patient's blood can be treated outside of the body to remove contaminants and introduce substances that can promote the health of the blood. The patient's blood may suffer from the presence of inflammatory mediators and toxins produced by, as examples, dead cancer tissue, pancreatitis, stroke, heart attack or other heart damage, cirrhosis, or other organ damage or failure. The treatment can include treating blood temperature, pH level, removing toxins, and removing inflammatory mediators as examples. Multiple ports on the patient may be connected to toxin removal systems and/or reintroduction systems. Contaminants can be removed, and nutrients or other helpful chemicals can be added to the patient's blood at desired flow rates. This can reduce or eliminate some, most, or even all of the side effects caused by therapies that cause rapid cancer death (e.g., chemotherapy, radiation, induced hyperthermia, virus therapy, and/or stem cell therapy) as well as address other maladies such as pancreatitis, stroke, heart attack or other heart damage, cirrhosis, or other organ damage or failure. If the toxins and inflammatory mediators are not removed within the proper period of time (e.g., during the procedure or anywhere within 15 minutes to 7 days after the procedure), the toxins and inflammatory mediators can cause the pH level to drop and the patient can die or suffer injury. As examples, the kidneys may shut down, the liver may shut down, and blood platelets may stop being produced by the body.

According to some embodiments, a system may be used to induce hyperthermia in a patient. The system may include one or more pumps configured to draw blood, for example from a patient, into a path at a rate, for example, above 4 liters per minute. The system may include one or more heat exchangers coupled to the path and configured to heat the blood to a temperature, for example, above 42 degrees Celsius and below 43.2 degrees Celsius. Or, in other embodiments the temperature may be above 42 degrees and below 43.8 degrees or below, for example, 43.5 degrees Celsius.

According to some embodiments, a system may be used to treat blood outside of a body of a patient. The system may include a path located outside of a body of a patient. The system may further include one or more pumps configured to circulate the blood in the path at a rate, for example, above 4 liters per minute. The system may further include one or more heat exchangers coupled to the path and configured to heat the blood to a temperature, for example, above 42 degrees Celsius and below 43.2 degrees Celsius. Or, in other embodiments the temperature may be above 42 degrees Celsius and below 43.8 degrees Celsius or below, for example, 43.5 degrees Celsius. The system may further include one or more modules configured to administer a substance (e.g., ozone or Freon) to the blood that facilitates the production of reactive oxygen species within the blood. The substance may include any element or composition of matter that constitutes a free radical or that is an unstable substance (e.g. ozone) that reacts with some substance in the body (e.g. oxygen) to form a free radical. The system may further include one or more dialysis modules configured to perform dialysis (e.g., convection dialysis or diffusion dialysis) on the blood. The system may further include a venting system to remove carbon dioxide from the blood. The venting system can add oxygen to the blood, in some embodiments. The system may also include an oxygenator to add oxygen to the blood.

According to some embodiments, a method may induce hyperthermia in a patient. The method may include drawing blood from a patient into a path at a rate, for example, above 4 liters per minute. The method may further include heating the blood to a temperature, for example, above 42 degrees Celsius and below 43.2 degrees Celsius. Or, in other embodiments the temperature may be above 42 degrees Celsius and below 43.8 degrees Celsius or below, for example, 43.5 degrees Celsius. The method may further include adding the heated blood back into the patient.

According to some embodiments, a method may treat blood outside of a body of a patient. The method may include circulating blood through a path at a rate, for example above 4 liters per minute. The method may further include heating the blood to a temperature above 42 degrees Celsius and below 42.9 degrees Celsius to provide treated blood. Or, in other embodiments the temperature may be above 42 degrees Celsius and below 43.8 degrees Celsius or below, for example, 43.5 degrees Celsius. The method may further include performing dialysis (e.g., convection dialysis or diffusion dialysis) on the blood. The method may further include removing carbon dioxide from the blood. The method may also include adding oxygen to the blood.

According to some embodiments, a method may treat blood outside of a body of a patient. The method may further include heating the blood to a temperature above 42 degrees Celsius and below 43.2 degrees Celsius. Or, in other embodiments the temperature may be above 42 degrees Celsius and below 43.8 degrees Celsius or below, for example, 43.5 degrees Celsius. The method may also include adding a substance to the blood that facilitates the production of reactive oxygen species within the blood as discussed above.

In various embodiments, some, none, or all of the following advantages can be present. Induced hyperthermia can be applied to the entire body. Blood can be maintained at a temperature between 42 and 43.2 degrees Celsius (or at any of the temperature ranges or temperatures discussed herein) while being removed and pumped into the body. Or, in other embodiments the temperature may be above 42 degrees Celsius and below 43.8 degrees Celsius or below, for example, 43.5 degrees Celsius. Induced hyperthermia can be accomplished in some cases without the need of a heat chamber. One or more of the embodiments described above may be used as a standard of care and treatment for various cancers or other maladies and can reduce or avoid the need of further treatment (e.g., surgical removal of tumor or cancer cells). One or more of the techniques discussed above may enable induced hyperthermia such that: a temperature of 42 degrees Celsius or slightly higher (e.g., such as any of the temperature ranges or temperatures discussed herein) is applied to all, or substantially all, or a majority of the cancer cells in a body for an appropriate duration of time (such as any of the ranges of time discussed herein); the entire body (or the important parts of the body) can be heated substantially consistently throughout the treatment; the core body (or the important parts of the body) temperature, including the brain's temperature, can be accurately monitored. A precise, body-wide, controllable hyperthermia method can be achieved that can kill all, nearly all, or a substantial number of the cancer cells in a patient over their entire body or substantially their entire body without harming (or severely harming) or damaging the patient either during the procedure, hours after the procedure, or one or more days after the procedure. A high blood flow rate may be enabled so that induced hyperthermia can raise the core body temperature to the range of 42 to 43.2 degrees Celsius (or any of the temperature ranges or temperatures discussed herein) within 45 minutes (or any of the time ranges discussed herein) without raising the temperature of the blood to 44 to 48 degrees Celsius, which has a greater potential to kill the patient's good cells. Or, in other embodiments the temperature may be above 42 degrees Celsius and below 43.8 degrees Celsius or below, for example, 43.5 degrees Celsius. Convection dialysis can be employed to remove toxins and/or pro inflammatory mediators created by full body induced hyperthermia that are in the range of 1-60,000 Daltons or above; dialysis (convection or diffusion) can be performed during the induced hyperthermia and after the induced hyperthermia (e.g., up to 48 hours after induced hyperthermia, or any of the time durations discussed above) to better remove toxins and/or pro inflammatory mediators. Pro inflammatory mediators, toxins, and/or plasma water can be removed using dialysis; these can be placed in a suitable location (e.g., a waste container). The amount of plasma water removed using dialysis can be measured and this measurement can be used to determine an amount of fluid to introduce to the blood. The fluid can be plasma water is electrolyte-balanced and/or acid-balanced. The fluid can be returned to the blood just prior to entering back into the patient's body. The fluid can help maintain physiological homeostasis and proper fluid balance.

Other technical advantages of the present disclosure will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art from the following figures, descriptions, and claims. Moreover, while specific advantages have been enumerated above, various embodiments may include all, some, or none of the enumerated advantages.

