Treatment of superficial cancers by combination hyperthermia and radiation therapy.

Clinical studies are being carried out to evaluate whether radiation combined with hyperthermia evokes better tumor control than that achieved with radiation alone. Thus far, 54 patients with various superficial cancers have been treated with combination hyperthermia and radiation. The heating methods used have been temperature regulated water bath immersion and radiofrequency inductive heating. Hyperthermia alone has caused significant, though transitory, tumor regression in 10 out of 19 patients. Selective heating of tumor tissues has been achieved in 20 out of 24 lesions following radiofrequency inductive hyperthermia. The overall local tumor control rate after the combined therapy was 78 percent compared to 26 percent after radiation alone.