A new method of thermo-chemotherapy using a stent for patients with esophageal cancer.
OBJECTIVE
Many patients with advanced esophageal cancer have a stent inserted in the esophagus, but very little else can be done. We devised a new method of delivering thermotherapy using an implant heating system (IHS) with a metallic stent. To our knowledge, there are no other reports of thermotherapy using metallic stents. We report our clinical results of treating patients with this new technique.


METHODS
A metallic stent was placed in the esophagus and heated for thermotherapy. This was combined with simultaneous chemotherapy in 13 patients and radio-chemotherapy in 5 patients. Each thermotherapy session consisted of heating the stent to 50 degrees C for 10 min. These 18 patients received a collective 52 sessions of thermotherapy. The tumor was excised after this treatment in 5 of these 18 patients.


RESULTS
We evaluated 17 of the 18 patients, after the exclusion of 1 patient who underwent radio-chemotherapy before placement of the stent. There was 1 complete response (CR) and 12 partial responses (PR), accounting for 76%. The patient with a CR had no residual cancer cells detected by pathologic examination after surgical resection. Thermotherapy proved effective in 8 (89%) of 9 patients who received this treatment at least three times. It was effective in all (100%) patients who underwent concomitant radio-chemotherapy.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results show that thermotherapy using a stent can improve the effectiveness of combination therapy, suppress local tumor growth, and enhance quality of life over a long period.
Akiyama
Seiji
S
Department of Surgery, Ichinomiya Municipal Hospital, 2-2-22 Bunkyo, Ichinomiya, Aichi 491-8558, Japan.
Kawasaki
Shingo
S
Kodera
Yasuhiro
Y
Hibi
Kenji
K
Kato
Sawako
S
Ito
Katsuki
K
Nakao
Akimasa
A
D000368:Aged; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D006979:Hyperthermia, Induced / Q000295:instrumentation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018714:Radiotherapy, Adjuvant; D015607:Stents; D016896:Treatment Outcome