Clinical results of Thermography controlled wIRA superficial hyperthermia


Notter M, Piazena H, Vaupel P published in the International Journal of Hyperthermia 2016 a retrospective study of 73 patients with pre-irradiated LRBC, treated from 2009 - 2015 at the Swiss public hospitals Hopitale Cantonale La-Chaux-de-Fonds and Lindenhofspital Berne.

Thermography controlled wIRA superficial hyperthermia (45-60 minutes) was performed 1-4 minutes before hypofractionated radiotherapy of 5 treatments à 4 Gy, 1x/week.

Results:

  • Response rates in patients with macroscopic disease:
    61% CR, 33% PR, 5% NC and 1% PD.
    Local control throughout life time after CR of macroscopic disease: 59%.
  • All nine patients with microscopic disease had CR and local control throughout lifetime.
  • Only grade 1 toxicities were observed.


These results were achieved although - compared to other clinical studies on HT/RT in LRBC - pre-irradiation dosage as well as the size of tumour lesions were highly above-average, whereby the total re-irradiation dosage of 5 x 4 Gy = 20 Gy was the lowest dosage ever applied.

The low toxicity even allowed for the effective re-reirradiation of re-recurrences.

The publication including detailled analysis of patient characteristics, local control, survival and location of re-recurrences, is fully available OPEN ACCESS:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02656736.2016.1235731