Chemotherapy and Radiation Aided by Hyperthermia

A study has found that hypothermia can serve as an activator to sensitize tumors to radiation in patients with neck and head cancer. Conducted by a team of Italian researchers, the study was published in the International Journal of Hyperthermia (2001;16:61).

Squamous cell carcinomas, like many kinds of tumors, are difficult to cure with radiation or chemotherapy because they tend to be partially dead and oxygen starved. Phase III clinical trials involving the use of hyperthermia were completed on 50 patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and cervical node metastases. The researchers concluded from the results that hyperthermia acts as "a radio sensitizer in the treatment of hypodense metastatic nodes, overcoming the radioresistance of necrotic, presumably hypoxic nodal metastases.”

The hyperthermia equipment used in the study was manufactured by BSD Medical Corp. (Salt Lake City, UT, USA). The company says that since tumors have such low oxygen levels, hyperthermia may serve as an activator to increase chemotherapy drug uptake and to sensitize tumors to radiation.



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