Transurethral hyperthermia in early stage prostate cancer

Objective

A treatment only has value if it can be demonstrated to be more effective than doing nothing. The major treatment for early prostate cancer (PC) is surgery or radiation. Unfortunately, none of these has been clearly shown to have a positive effect on long-term survival. In a study published in JAMA in 1997 a prospective, population-based study in Sweden showed that 223 patients that did not have a radical prostatectomy had the same long-term survival rate (81%) as those that did. Several statistics show that prostatectomy in early-stage cancer cannot affect the natural course of the disease. Several investigations have shown the efficiency of hyperthermia in different malignant tumours. We now have more than 10 years of experience with hyperthermia for the treatment of PC and the results are promising. The strategy of modern anticancer therapy is directed towards the control of local tumour growth with the maximum possible elimination of the neoplastic cell load. Hyperthermia offers support for both direct cell killing and sensitising neoplastic cells to hormone-, radio- and chemo-therapy.