The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of regional hyperthermia combined with lamivudine (LAM) for treatment of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and explore its possible mechanism. Forty CHB patients were randomly divided into the combination group (treated with regional hyperthermia and LAM ; n=17) and control group (treated with LAM alone ; n=23). Laboratory examinations were performed for hepatic function, hepatitis B virus (HBV) markers, and HBV DNA. Lymphocyte subpopulations including CD3⁺ (total T cells), CD4⁺CD8^- (helper T cells) and CD4^-CD8⁺ (cytotoxic T cells) were detected with flow cytometry. The side effects and tolerance were observed. Aspartate aminotransferase and HBV-DNA levels were significantly lower in the combination group than in the control group (P< 0.05). Hepatitis e antigen/antibody conversion rate was similar between the two groups, whereas the combination group had significantly higher rates of CD4⁺/CD8⁺ T cells than the control group (P< 0.05). Regional hyperthermia combined with LAM is superior to LAM alone for treatment of CHB, which may be achieved by enhancing cellular immune function.

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Transurethral microwave thermotherapy (TUMT) is a minimally invasive procedure for treating prostate disease. In this study, androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) was started 3 months before TUMT to reduce volume of the early stage prostate cancer to render the thermotherapy effective. Seventy five Japanese male with localized prostate cancer, clinical stage T1c-T2bN0M0, were included for this study. The therapy started with ADT for 3 months to reduce volume of the prostate. High-energy TUMT with UroWave (Dornier MedTech Systems GmbH) was then performed. Transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) in radical fashion was then performed at least 3 months after TUMT to wait for maturation of histopathologic changes. Significant reduction in volume of the prostate (mean 35%) was noted after ADT for 3 months. The mean volume of the prostate at TUMT was 21.6 ml. Pathologic study of all the TURP chips revealed no cancer cell in 59 of 75 patients. Among 16 patients who were found to have remnant cancer cells in TURP chips, 10 were with non-viable cancer cells and 6 were with probably viable cancer cells. No patient showed any sign of local progression or metastatic disease and no patient died of prostate cancer for the past 8 years. These results suggest that combination of high-energy transurethral microwave thermotherapy and androgen deprivation will be a potential alternative to treat localized prostate cancer.

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This paper describes the effectiveness of the developed simulator system for performing an effective hyperthermia treatment with a needle applicator in virtual reality (VR). The human brain is protected by the skull, which makes it difficult to non-invasively heat deep brain tumors with electromagnetic energy. Generally, needle applicators were used in clinical practice to heat brain tumors. However, some problems exist. One is that this heating method has a small heating area around the needle. In order to expand the heating area of a needle applicator, we developed a new type of needle applicator made from a shape memory alloy (SMA). The thermal properties of the SMA were checked experimentally using the developed heating system. As a result, the proposed needle applicator made of SMA is useful to create a wider heating area inside a tumor.
Another problem is that medical doctors find it difficult to put a needle applicator into a target point inside of tumors. Therefore, a support system for performing an effective hyperthermia treatment is required in the clinic.
In this paper, first, we constructed an anatomical 3-D model from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and X-ray computed tomography (CT) images by using 3-D computer aided design (CAD) software.
Second, we presented the finite element method (FEM) model which is divided into non-linear elements on 3-D computer graphics (CG).
Finally, we calculated temperature distributions using the 3-D FEM model with blood perfusion during hyperthermia treatments.
From these results, it was found that the proposed VR system is effective for performing hyperthermia treatments.

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