Report of long-term follow-up in a randomized trial comparing radiation therapy and radiation therapy plus hyperthermia to metastatic lymphnodes in stage IV head and neck patients

Status of Clinical Hyperthermia

“…As they observed significantly better tumour control in the combined group, 82.3 versus 36.8% (p= 0.015), the study was prematurely closed for ethical reasons after analysis of the first 36 tumours. A follow-up report of 41 patients with 44 neck nodes confirmed that adjuvant hyperthermia improved local control at 5 years: 68.6% after heat versus 24.2% in controls (p= 0.015) (27). There was also a significantly improved 5-year survival: 53.3% vs. 0% (p= 0.02).…”

“…Randomized studies have failed to prove that more sessions are better than fewer sessions (26,27), or that a twice weekly schedule is inferior because of possible development of thermal tolerance (9,(28)(29)(30). At present there is no documented schedule of hyperthermia that is clearly superior.…”

Hyperthermia, Radiation and Chemotherapy: The Role of Heat in Multidisciplinary Cancer Care

“…A longer term analysis reported actuarial 5 year overall survival of 55% vs. 0% in the hyperthermia vs. radiation alone arms. (79) In a more recent study from India, 56 patients were randomized to receive radiation alone or with hyperthermia for treatment of tumors of the oropharynx, hypophaynx, or larynx. Over 90% had stage 3 or 4 disease.…”

Towards developing effective hyperthermia treatment for tumours in the nasopharyngeal region

“…This study showed an increase in 5-year survival rate from 81.1% to 95.6% when adding hyperthermia, and an improvement in local control from 78.9% to 91.1%. Although less spectacular than the improvements reported by Valdagni et al [12,13] and Amichetti et al [8], the results from Hua et al do confirm the benefit from hyperthermia when added to radiation for this deeply located site in the head and neck region. Equally important was the observation that no increase in early or late toxicity was induced.…”