Interaction of hyperthermia and radiation: the survival surface.

The interaction of hyperthermia and radiation on cell survival is illustrated by the increase in sensitivity to radiation caused by hyperthermia and the increase in sensitivity to hyperthermia caused by radiation. A method of expressing the total response to a combination of these two agents by means of a survival surface in three dimensions is explained and discussed. A simple mathematical model of the suface is formulated in which is a first order interaction term is separated from the two terms representing unperturbed radiation survival and unperturbed hyperthermia survival. An experiment is described in which survival data points were obtained for 77 combinations of radiation and hypertermia doses in the form of a matrix. These data points are plotted as 11 radiation survival curves and seven hyperthermia survival curves. The results are also analysed to give the parameters of the survival surface model. The model with its three components is shown to be a good approximation to the experimental results.