Oral Cancer Treatments – Local Hyperthermia
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Local Hyperthermia for Oral Cancer
With hyperthermia, physicians at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) are able to expose oral tissue to high temperatures (up to 106ºF) to damage and kill cancer cells, or to make cancer cells more sensitive to the effects of radiation and chemotherapy.
Local hyperthermia, in which heat is applied to a very small area (such as a tumor), is a well-established cancer treatment which follows a simple principle: If a temperature increased to 106ºF can be sustained within a malignant tumor for one hour, the cancerous cells can be destroyed. Blood circulates poorly in primary malignant tumors, making them more susceptible to increases in temperature.
Hyperthermia is almost always used to increase the effectiveness of other forms of therapy, such as radiation therapy, chemotherapy or biotherapy/immunotherapy. For external hyperthermia, the treatment area may be heated with high-frequency waves aimed at a tumor from a device outside the body. To achieve internal heating, physicians use one of several types of sterile probes, which might include thin, heated wires or hollow tubes filled with warm water, implanted microwave antennae or radiofrequency electrodes.
Using Sonotherm 1000, physicians at CTCA apply ultra-high frequency sound waves, or ultrasound, to administer local hyperthermia to solid tumors. More easily focused than other forms of energy, ultrasound can be applied to tumors located up to 8 centimeters deep within your body. This ability enables physicians to treat tumors unreachable by other external modalities. In addition, ultrasound doesn't necessitate that medical personnel protect themselves with radiowave shielding devices during treatment.
With hyperthermia perfusion, another hyperthermia approach, a warmed solution containing anticancer drugs is used to bathe the oral cancer tumor. Or, the solution may be passed through the tumor’s blood vessels. In this technique, some of your blood is removed, heated and then pumped (perfused) into the region that is to be heated internally.
Typically, hyperthermia does not heighten side effects of radiation therapy. About half the people treated with heat applied directly to the skin, however, experience some discomfort or even significant local pain. Hyperthermia can also cause blisters, which generally heal rapidly (depending on the health of the patient’s skin). Less commonly, the procedure can cause burns.
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