Bücher der Reihe Thermotherapy

When in the future improved and more flexible heating equipment becomes available, and when hyperthermia is applied more routinely, computerized simulations of treatments will become commonplace, as they are in radia tion therapy.

There are three different techniques for pro viding internal hyperthermia: (1) interstitial hyperthermia using implanted needle probes, (2) intracavitary hyperthermia using probes introduced into natural body cavities, and (3) perfusional hyperthermia by means of ex tracorporal blood heating.

The enormous potential that hyperthermia has for benefiting patients with cancer is impressively indicated by biological studies, both in vitro and in vivo, and by comparative clinical studies whenever the heat has been appro priate to the size of the tumor.

Studies on the effects of hyperthermia have aroused great interest in recent years. However, since it has been shown that radiation-induced cell killirtg can be remarkably enhanced by hyperthermia, many investigations have been performed with cells in vitro, tumors in situ, and normal tissues.

All aspects of both preclinical Anticancer effects of elevated (noncauterizing) tem and clinical WBH, ranging from molecular biology perature were first observed in ancient Egyptian times and physiology to WBH methodologies and clinical (Oleson and Dewhirst 1983).