Clinical hyperthermia, alone or with radiation therapy: results of a preliminary study on recurrences of cancers

Authors present results obtained by hyperthermic treatment (alone or associated with radiation therapy) on 50 patients (with a total of 66 sites) treated between September 1983 and August 1986. All patients had recurrent or metastatic lesions of pretreated malignant tumors. Among these there were 19 breast adenocarcinomas, 33 squamous cell carcinomas of head and neck, 9 melanomas and 5 subcutaneous metastases of adenocarcinoma of the cervix, rectum and colon. The clinical protocol was: hyperthermia alone (43 degrees -45 degrees C for 30 minutes, bi-weekly, for 4-5 weeks) or hyperthermia plus radiation therapy (4 Gy/fraction) for a total of 8-10 seances, in accordance with previous given doses of irradiation. In summary, complete response rates were 21.2% for head and neck tumors, and 51.5% for cutaneous or subcutaneous lesions. Results have also been analysed according to different prognostic variables related to tumor and treatment characteristics. These data are discussed.