Effects of hyperthermia and irradiation on the growth of mouse melanoma tumors following immunotherapy.

Recent investigations suggest that adjuvant hyperthermia enhances the response of human malignant melanoma to ionizing radiation. A study was undertaken to explore the effect of radiation and hyperthermia on the responsiveness of melanoma following active immunization with lethally irradiated B16 melanoma cells in C57 BL 6 mice. Two groups of mice were treated: group 1 received immunotherapy on days 2-5 following tumor inoculation, and group 2 received immunotherapy on days 15-18 following tumor inoculation. The mice in each group were subsequently randomized into one of three subgroups: 1) no further treatment; 2) radiation therapy alone (6 Gy in a single fraction); 3) radiation therapy and regional hyperthermia (43 degrees C x 1 hour). Tumor sizes were measured regularly, and between day 52 and 63 the animals were sacrificed and the lungs sectioned for counting of metastatic tumors. Results from this study show that the immunomodulated B16 murine melanoma is responsive to radiation therapy alone and that this responsiveness is enhanced by the addition of adjuvant regional hyperthermia. There did not appear to be any significant effect of radiation therapy or radiation therapy plus hyperthermia on the development of lung metastases in this tumor model system.