Several phase III clinical studies have shown significantly
better results in treating certain cancers when hyperthermia
therapy was added to radiation therapy, as compared to radiation
treatments alone. At this year's ASCO conference, the results of
a 340-patient randomized phase III clinical trial testing the
benefit of adding hyperthermia therapy to chemotherapy were
reported (abstract 10009). "This is the first randomized phase
III clinical trial ever conducted on the use of regional
hyperthermia therapy in combination with standard chemotherapy,"
said Rolf D. Issels, MD, PhD, who presented the results. "It
showed an approximate doubling of disease-free survival and
local progression-free survival for high-risk soft-tissue
sarcoma patients when hyperthermia therapy was added to
chemotherapy, as compared to the results for patients treated
with chemotherapy alone." All hyperthermia treatments performed
in the study were conducted using BSD-2000 hyperthermia systems
developed and produced by BSD Medical Cor