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Title: Combined radiation and hyperthermia: comparison of two treatment schedules based on data from a registry established by the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG)

Journal Article · · Int. J. Radiat. Oncol., Biol. Phys.; (United States)

A registry established by the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group provides data for assessing the impact of clinical heating in a set of non-randomized patients treated with hyperthermia in participating member institutions from 1/77 to 6/81. This analysis focuses on tumor response when localized hyperthermia is produced by microwave and applied pursuant to two distinctly different treatment schedules. Hyperthermia treatments were biweekly and combined with daily radiation treatments in one patient group, and combined with biweekly radiation treatment in another. None of the patients received concurrent chemotherapy; all received between 3 and 13 hyperthermia treatments; all had superficial, measurable tumors. Generally, the two treatment schedules achieved similar levels of tumor response. Adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma in both samples responded well to these combined treatments. Best responses to treatment generally occurred between 28 and 84 days after completion of the combined therapy course. There were no differences between the two samples with respect to median days to best response or response duration. Blister, ulcer or wet desquamation were reported as the maximum skin reaction. No correlation could be found, however, between reported worst skin reaction and therapy characteristics including maximum skin temperature, maximum tumor temperature, total minutes of heat and total radiation dose.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Washington, Seattle
OSTI ID:
6589794
Journal Information:
Int. J. Radiat. Oncol., Biol. Phys.; (United States), Vol. 10:6
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English