Hyperthermia and heat-ablation trials, trials, and more trials -- and substantial clinical use. All (excepting some very early, poorly conceived/executed instances) providing very significant positive results -- with little or negligible harmful side effects. A summary is provided in the 10K.
Reminder: For cancer treatments, hyperthermia usually means using heat as an adjuvant to other therapies. If the heating is used to ablate a tumor, then the therapy is called ablation. Presently, BSD Medical’s ablation equipment is the MTX-180, and it is very highly competitive with other ablation equipment – simply and by far the best (as reported for early use by leading doctors). Their other products can also provide ablation, but this practice is not yet substantial (perhaps it will soon be common, though – the difference between hyperthermia and ablation is, fundamentally, just a matter of the power levels used).
Many clinical trials and scientific trials (essentially what Phase 3 trials are) have produced strong proof for hyperthermia as a powerful cancer therapy. See below, which starts on Page 5 (pdf pagination) of the latest 10K: (In the “Our Contributions to Cancer Therapy” section) (****s added for emphasis, and notice “Published data” – other results have likely not yet been published.) (Also, notice “randomized” – indicating Phase 3-type trials, i.e. comparative trials against accepted therapies)
<Hyperthermia has been shown to be a significant potentiator of other therapies. Clinical studies have demonstrated that hyperthermia can more than double the efficacy of radiation therapy in select tumors, without an increase in toxicity, and can enhance the efficacy of a number of chemotherapeutic agents, providing a safe and efficacious treatment for many types of solid tumors. ****Published data from 18 randomized trials on hyperthermia demonstrated significantly better results from hyperthermia combined with radiotherapy (n=13), chemotherapy (n=3), and radiotherapy plus chemotherapy (n=2), compared to the same treatment without hyperthermia.****
A meta-analysis was published that included all published, randomized studies that compared hyperthermia and radiation therapy to radiation therapy alone. The analysis involved 23 studies of 1,861 patients. Results of this meta-analysis showed a significant improvement in outcome from the addition of hyperthermia to radiotherapy for a number of tumor sites; i.e., chest wall, cervix, rectum, bladder, melanoma, and head and neck, to a high degree of statistical significance. For melanoma, after two years, local control (local regression or disappearance of the tumor) was 28% for the control group of patients who received radiation therapy alone versus 46% local control for the patients who received both hyperthermia and radiation therapy. For recurrent breast cancer, the complete response rate (complete disappearance of the tumor) increased from 38% for those receiving radiation therapy alone to 60% for those patients who received both hyperthermia and radiation therapy. For glioblastoma (brain cancer), the two-year survival rate for patients who received radiation therapy alone was 15%, compared to 31% survival rate two years after treatment for those who received both hyperthermia and radiation therapy. For advanced cervical cancer, the complete response rate (disappearance of the tumor) rose from 57% for patients 5 who received radiation treatments alone to 83% for patients receiving both hyperthermia and radiation therapy. The cervical cancer data was based on the condition of patients three years after treatment. High risk soft-tissue sarcoma patients were 30% more likely to be alive and cancer free almost three years after starting treatment if hyperthermia was added to their chemotherapy treatment. Median disease-free survival was 32 months in the hyperthermia and chemotherapy group vs. 17 months in the chemotherapy only group. Almost three years after starting treatment, the sarcoma patients treated with hyperthermia and chemotherapy were 42% less likely to experience a recurrence of their cancer at the same site or to die than those who were getting chemotherapy alone. > |
