Now this
is a confusing topic to research. Most of what I've found has either
dismissed it as pseudoscience or tried to sell me something. The one
paper I found that might be of some use indicated that infrared
treatment may be effective for certain tumours containing low levels of a
protein called hsp70. Hsp70 is a heat-shock protein that indicates
stress in the body and protects cells and proteins from heat damage. The
paper stated: "This finding suggested that FIR should be very
effective medical treatment for some cancer cells which have a low level
of HSP70. Still more, if the level of HSP70 in any cancer of a patient
was measured, the effect of medical treatment by FIR can be foreseen for
the cancer." (1)
So,
essentially, the level of HSP70 determines how effective far infrared
therapy might be. Heat shock proteins are apparently over-expressed in
some cancers, and under-expressed in others (2). For GIST
tumours, at least one study has found that hsp70 level is positively
correlated with the severity of the tumour. Essentially, if you have
been told that your GIST is low to moderate risk, then chances are there is a low level of hsp70, which would make the infrared sauna more likely to be effective. (3)
I don't know if any of that is of any help, but it's the best information I've been able to find so far.
