For the patients with breast cancer that are locally advanced or metastatic, treatment to control not only local disease but also distant metastasis is desirable. Hyperthermo-radio-chemotheapy (HRC) combined with surgery was performed for 16 patients with stage III or stage IV breast cancer and the clinical outcomes of this multimodal treatment were analyzed. The size of the primary tumor was significantly reduced after preoperative HRC with the CR rate of 18.8% (3/16) and PR rate of 81.3% (13/ 16). Three- and 5-year overall survival rates for the stage III patients were 100% and 87.5%, respectively ; their 3- and 5- year disease free rates were 78.8% and 52.5%, respectively. One- and 3-year survival rates for the stage IV patients were 80.0% and 20.0%, respectively. No loco-regional recurrence was observed. HRC combined with surgery for advanced breast cancer patients was effective for down-staging of the primary tumor and maintaining local control.

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The SHN strain of virgin mice is characterized by a high susceptibility to both mammary tumours and uterine adenomyosis, which are considered to have similar etiological backgrounds. We previously studied the effects of different schedules of irradiation of far-infrared rays (FIR) and/or whole-body hyperthermia (WBH) with FIR on spontaneous mammary tumourigenesis in SHN mice. In the present study, the development and growth of uterine adenomyosis were examined in these mice. Continued exposure to FIR after 2 or 5 months of age and WBH between 2 and 4 months of age alone or in combination with FIR markedly inhibited mammary tumour development ; however, the development of adenomyosis was suppressed by exposure to FIR from the fetus and WBH alone or in combination with FIR. Neither FIR nor WBH was effective in inhibiting the growth of adenomyosis, though WBH inhibited the growth of mammary tumours. The results suggest that mammary and uterine lesions do not always have a similar response/susceptibility to FIR. However, they indicate a promising protective role for FIR, especially WBH with FIR, in disorders of the uterine and other female genital tracts.

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We previously developed a new system of magnetic induction interstitial hyperthermia, implant heating system (IHS), and applied to oral cancer control. To overcome the limitations of this system, the present study dealt with new magnetic induction hyperthermia using Magnetic Cationic Liposomes (MCLs) which are injected into a tumor. We prepared a tongue tumor model using the transplantable rabbit VX-7 cells. MCL was injected into the tumor margins to heat the tumor selectively and induce blood vessel damage by heating. Two separated MCL injection sites were made by using Micro syringe pump and sandwiched the tumor on both sides.
The rabbit in group I (n = 4) were performed hyperthermia, while those in group II (n= 4) were not subjected to magnetic field irradiation as the control. In the experimental rabbits, the temperature in the tumor was as high as 43.0°C. The tumor volumes of irradiated rabbits were significantly smaller than those of the non irradiated ones. The transplanted tumor of experimental rabbits almost completely disappeared following 18 day after treatment. The tongues, removed from irradiated rabbits on 28th day after irradiation, showed no tumor cells and fibrous tissue replacement completely occurred in the implanted tumor area. Tongue muscle adjacent to the MCL injection sites did not exhibit any evidence of inflammation or necrosis. The present study confirmed the effectiveness of interstitial hyperthermia using MCLs against oral carcinoma.

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The combined effects of preoperative hyperthermia and radiation therapy were evaluated histopathologically for 60 patients with advanced rectal carcinoma located in the lower part of the rectum. Thirty-four patients were treated by preoperative radiation therapy without hyperthermia (Group A). The remaining 26 patients were treated by preoperative radiation therapy combined with hyperthermia (Group B). The total dose of radiation was 30.6Gy. Hyperthermia was performed twice, immediately after irradiation, at one-week intervals. Effects of the preoperative treatment were assessed by histopathological findings of the resected specimens using a semiquantitative scoring system (Grade 0-3). The local recurrence rates were 17.6 and 15.4 percent in Groups A and B, respectively. No difference in the postoperative survival rates was observed between the two groups. However, regarding the pathological findings of the resected tumor, the percentage of patients with an ineffective change in the resected specimens (Grade 0) was significantly lower in Group B than it was in Group A (p = 0.035). Hence, the combination of hyperthermia and preoperative radiation therapy may enhance the radiation effects on a rectal tumor and may be useful as a preoperative therapeutic strategy for rectal carcinoma.

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We performed thermochemotherapy into the pleural cavity for treatment of post-operative malignant pleural effusion in patient with p-stage III B adenocarcinoma. An operation was performed as right upper lobectomy (ND2a) and any lymphnode metastases of cancer were not detected by the pathological examination, but inter- and post-operative effusion cytology were positive. With regard to the application of hyperthermia, malignant pleural effusion after an operation presents a clinical challenge when hyperthermia and chemotherapy are used in combination as a local aggressive treatment. Hyperthermia was performed to the ipsilateral pleural cavity for 35 minutes under the perfusion of CDDP (50mg/body). Post-operative pleural effusion clearly decreased and results of cytology test were negative at twice, during seven months after thermochemotherapy.

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