Evidence: Clinical study
Therapy: CT+mEHT
Year: 2004
ABSTRACT: Oncothermia is a method of hyperthermia in oncology, controlling the locally applied deep heat by selectively targeting the cellular membrane of the malignant cells. The selection of the method is based on various biophysical and biochemical achievements. There are various differences between the malignant and healthy cells, which could be used for their selection by heat targeting. The primary selection factor is a different metabolic activity which creates distinguishable environments of the malignant cells. The other factor is the clear difference of dielectric properties of the membrane and near-membrane extracellular electrolytes, marking off the malignancies. There is also a structural factor, which is clear in the different pathological patterns of the malignancy from their healthy counterparts. This last is described by fractal pattern evaluation technique, in which dynamic time-fractal transformation is used for further discernment of the malignancy. My objective is to show a new heating method, which makes oncological hyperthermia controllable and effective. 1. Introduction Oncological hyperthermia is the overheating of the malignant tissues locally or systemically. The method is deduced from the ancient medical practices, where the heat therapies had a central role in medicine. The local hyperthermia by the radiation of red-hot iron was the first known oncological treatment applied by Hypocrites, who described the method [1]. The main idea was originated from sacral considerations formulating the overall force of the “fire.” However, physiological consideration was also behind that together with beliefs: the local heat accelerates the metabolic activity without extra supply of this action from the unheated neighboring volumes. This physiological mechanism is accompanied by severe hypoxia, and it finally kills the target by acidosis. The working idea has recently been shown, proving the impoverishment of ATP and enrichment of lactate in the locally heated tumor tissue [2]. Due to the primitive heating techniques, the ancient radiative heat is only rarely applied in real cases. The central point of the locally applied oncological hyperthermia is the selective heat delivery into the deep-seated tumors. The discovery of the electromagnetic heating gave new perspectives for deep heating, and hyperthermia started its first “golden era” in oncology. It was among the first modern curative applications of modern techniques in oncology [3] and was followed by a controlled clinical study involving 100 patients as early as 1912. It showed remarkable.