Skin Cancer Treatments – Local Hyperthermia
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Local Hyperthermia for Skin Cancer
Hyperthermia is a type of treatment in which skin tissue is exposed 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 certain anticancer drugs. Local hyperthermia treatment (heat applied to a very small area, such as a tumor) is a well-established cancer treatment method with a simple basic principle: If a rise in temperature to 106ºF can be obtained for one hour within a cancer tumor, the cancer cells will be destroyed. Primary malignant tumors have a bad blood circulation, which make them more sensitive to changes in temperature.
Hyperthermia can be used with radiation therapy, chemotherapy and biotherapy/immunotherapy. The area may be heated externally with high-frequency waves aimed at a tumor from a device outside the body. To achieve internal heating, one of several types of sterile probes may be used, including thin, heated wires or hollow tubes filled with warm water; implanted microwave antennae; and radio frequency electrodes.
CTCA’s Sonotherm 1000 uses ultrasound to administer our local hyperthermia to solid tumor cancers. This technique uses ultra-high frequency sound waves to produce heat within the tumor. Ultrasound is more easily focused than other energy modalities, and can be applied to tumors located from the skin to 8 centimeters within your body. This allows the treatment of tumors unreachable by other external modalities. Ultrasound doesn't require the use of radio wave shielding devices to protect medical personnel during treatment.
In another approach, called hyperthermia perfusion, a warmed solution containing anticancer drugs is used to bathe, or is passed through the blood vessels of the skin. Some of your blood is removed, heated, and then pumped (perfused) into the region that is to be heated internally.
Whole-body heating is used to treat metastatic cancer that has spread throughout the body. It can be accomplished using warm-water blankets, hot wax, inductive coils (like those in electric blankets), or thermal chambers (similar to large incubators).
Hyperthermia does not usually cause marked increase in radiation side effects. Heat applied directly to the skin, however, can cause discomfort or even significant local pain in about half the people treated with this procedure. It can also cause blisters, which generally heal rapidly (depending on the health of the patient’s skin). Less commonly, it can cause burns.
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