Good thermal dosimetry is essential to good hyperthermia research

Abstract

Our group has carried out a series of hyperthermia studies using third generation transplants of spontaneous mammary tumours on the flanks of C3H mice. The tumours were heated by immersion in water baths and considerable effort has been expended to characterize the thermal uniformity of the tumour under treatment conditions (Robinson et al., 1975). The results indicated that the tumours were uniform in temperature to about 0.1 °C and were within about 0.1 °C of the temperature of the water bath. Data taken with this tumour heated by means of a water bath showed a dramatic effect of hyperthermal treatment on tumour radiosensitivity (Robinson et al., 1972). In addition, a comparison of these tumour data with comparable data from normal mouse skin showed that a therapeutic advantage might be gained by radiation treatment at elevated temperatures (Robinson et al., 1974). Data from other laboratories, primarily from tumours implanted on the legs of mice and also heated by immersion in water baths (Thrall et al., 1975), show smaller therapeutic advantages for similar water bath temperatures.