Document Type : Review Article
Authors
1
Assistant Professor, Department of Medical Physics, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord
2
Associate professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, Unit Hyperthermia, Erasmus Medical Center, Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center, Rotterdam
Abstract
Purpose of this review paper is to provide an overview on the application of hyperthermia (HT) [the controlled increased of tumor temperature by 8-3°C] combined with conventional cancer treatment modalities. HT is applied with different methods e.g. superficial-HT, locoregional deep-HT, interstitial-HT, intracavity-HT, and whole body-HT. Studies show the addition of HT to radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or both, will result in better tumor response rate, local control, palliative effects and survival rate, without increasing toxicity, in different tumor sites such as breast cancer, melanoma, head and neck, cervix cancer and glioblastoma. In the recent years, due to the substantial technical improvements in achieving selected increase of temperatures in superficial and deep-seated tumors, thermometry, and treatment planning, HT is becoming more accepted clinically worldwide. HT, as an adjunctive cancer treatment modality, is certainly a promising approach, however, it is not well known yet. Key words: Hyperthermia, Radiotherapy, Chemotherapy, Combination therapy, Cancer
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