Intravenous plasma concentration-time curve and AUC of pirarubicin, which is metabolized mainly in the liver, infused in the hepatic artery with or without hyperthermia is compared. One patient with hepatocellular carcinoma and 4 cases with metastatic liver cancer were enrolled. Pirarubicin (THP-ADR) (15mg/m²) was infused in proper hepatic artery in 20 minutes from implanted catheter. Intravenous plasma concentration of the drug was measured immediately after injection, 0.5, 1, 3 and 6 hours after injection respectively. Three weeks later, the same amount of the drug was injected to the same patient concomitantly with hyperthermic treatment of the liver using Thermotron RF8 and the drug concentration was measured. Changes of WBC, platelets counts, total bilirubin and AST (GOT) after pirarubicin injection with or without hyperthermia were also compared. Mean value of AUC (HR×μg/ml) of the injected pirarubicin without and with hyperthermia were 0.068+/-0.022 and 0.062+/-0.023 respectively. No significant difference of AUC between hepatic injection alone and injection during hyperthermia was seen by paired t-test (p=0.563). No significant difference was seen in WBC, platelets counts, total bilirubin and AST between pirarubicin injection with and without hyperthermia. It was suggested that toxicity of pirarubicin injected in hepatic artery would not increase even if combined with hyperthemic treatment of the liver.

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In the interstitial or intracavitary hyperthermia, two electrodes are usually used to heat the deep-seated tumor ; one is the internal electrode and the other is the external flat electrode for RF current field heating. In some case, three electrodes are used ; one is the internal electrode and the remainders are two external flat electrodes. In order to compare the two methods, SAR simulations have been performed on the interstitial or intracavitary hyperthermia using one internal electrode with one external flat electrode and one internal electrode with two external flat electrodes for RF current field heating. The results suggest that the heating region could be controlled by the position of the external electrodes and the heat diffusion could be reduced for the three electrodes method because of whole heating effect.

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The temperature measurement of tumor is very important for hyperthermia. A temperature is measured by inserting a thermocouple thermometer into a living body. The fault of this method is that it can get only partial temperature and it has large invasive to the patient. Therefore, it method can't know even if a part of temperature rises. We researched the matter whether temperature measurement could be done without stabbing a thermometer by using the small coils. A magnetic field is generated when the radio-frequency is charged with electricity of the high frequency to the objects. Magnetic field is caught with the coil which put this magnetic field on making it stand opposite to each other. The electric fields decrease by 1/ (2πr). Then, we can calculate the profile of the electric fields using this equation. There are strong correlation between the radio frequency current and temperature in this object. Therefore, we can estimate the temperature distribution in the heating object non-invasive. The results of this study confirmed, there was strong correlation between temperature distribution using thermography and distribution of RF currents from our methods.

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We investigated the effectiveness of thermotherapy (heat stimulation), which has recently attracted attention as a method of cancer therapy with immunostimulating effects upon the defense mechanism of the human body. Heat stimulation was performed in 6 subjects for 30 minutes using a far-infrared heater. Blood samples were obtained from the forearm before irradiation (control) and 48 and 96 hours after irradiation, and hematological, biochemical, and immunological examinations were performed. We found that the heat stimulation with Smarty irradiation acted as a stressor that activated self-defense function by affecting the T-cell content and cytokine production.

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