Hyperthermia and its clinical application in cancer treatment

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to describe history of hyperthermia and its clinical applications in cancer treatment. Hyperthermia is a promising approach for cancer therapy which is used to increase the temperature of body tissue by delivering heat obtained from external sources to destroy cancerous cells with minimal or no damaging healthy tissues. There are three main clinical applications of hyperthermia such as local, regional and whole body. Microwaves, radiofrequency, ultrasound, infrared and different kinds of hot sources (hot water, ferromagnetic, nanoparticles) heating approaches are used in some clinical trials. Hyperthermia is administered as an adjuvant to other cancer treatment modalities (multimodal oncological strategies). However, hyperthermia is still facing many challenges in cancer treatment. Some trials continue to use hyperthermia in combination with other novel interstitial technologies such as magnetic fluid hyperthermia and thermolabile liposomes, application of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies under hyperthermic conditions, and hyperthermia- induced gene therapy for the treatment of different cancers which have been discussed. Thus, progress of hyperthermia in clinical applications has already shown some benefits to cancer patients.