A type of treatment in which body tissue is exposed to high temperatures to damage and kill cancer cells, or in the case of conventional therapy, to make cancer cells more sensitive to the effects of radiation and certain anticancer drugs.
Local hyperthermia treatment (heat applied to a very small area, such as a tumor) is a well-established cancer treatment method with a simple basic principle: If a rise in temperature to 106÷F can be obtained for one hour within a cancer tumor, the cancer cells will be destroyed.
The area may be heated externally with high-frequency waves aimed at a tumor from a device outside the body.
Ultrasound is more easily focused than other energy modalities, and can be applied to tumors located from the skin to 8 centimeters (approx. 3 in.) within the body.
This allows the treatment of tumors unreachable by other external modalities.
Whole-body heating is used to treat metastatic cancer that has spread throughout the body.
It can be accomplished using warm-water blankets, hot wax, inductive coils (like those in electric blankets), or thermal chambers (similar to large incubators).
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