title: Hyperthermia: a potent enhancer of radiotherapy.
abstract: Hyperthermia is generally regarded as an experimental treatment with no realistic future in clinical cancer therapy. This is totally wrong. Although the role of hyperthermia alone as a cancer treatment may be limited, there is extensive pre-clinical data showing that in combination with radiation it is one of the most effective radiation sensitisers known. Moreover, there are a number of large randomised clinical trials in a variety of tumour types that clearly show the potential of hyperthermia to significantly improve both local tumour control and survival after radiation therapy, without a significant increase in side-effects. Here we review the pre-clinical rationale for combining hyperthermia with radiation, and summarise the clinical data showing its efficacy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Clinical Oncology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark. mike@oncology.dk
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Horsman
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Overgaard
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015687:Cell Hypoxia / Q000528:radiation effects; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D006801:Humans; D006979:Hyperthermia, Induced; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000628:therapy*; D011836:Radiation Tolerance / Q000528:radiation effects; D011838:Radiation-Sensitizing Agents; D013997:Time Factors; D047368:Tumor Burden / Q000528:radiation effects
chemical_list: D011838:Radiation-Sensitizing Agents