Skin Cancer Local Hyperthermia
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Video: Local Hyperthermia Medical Animation
Local HyperthermiaLocal Hyperthermia
Watch a medical animation illustrating how local hyperthermia uses heat to damage cancer cells, making the cells more sensitive to other cancer treatments.
Local Hyperthermia for Skin Cancer
At Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), we use innovative skin cancer treatment methods, such as local hyperthermia, to shrink tumors. Hyperthermia involves the use of heat to damage proteins and structures within cancer cells.
Local hyperthermia (sometimes called superficial hyperthermia) exposes a small area, such as a tumor, to high temperatures. Heat can damage and destroy cancer cells, and enhance the effectiveness of other skin cancer treatments, like chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
For skin cancers, we often use local hyperthermia in conjunction with radiation therapy to help make a tumor more susceptible to the effects of the radiation. We may also use local hyperthermia in conjunction with chemotherapy or targeted drug therapy. Using this method, a warmed solution containing anticancer drugs is either used to bathe the cancerous tissue, or is passed through the blood vessels of the tumor.
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