The Effect of Hyperthemia in the Preoperative Combined Treatment of Radiation, Hyperthermia and Chemotherapy for Rectal Carcinoma

Fumio Konishi, Kazuhiro Furuta, Yukio Saito, Takashi Kataoka, Hiroshi Kashiwagi, Masaki Okada, Kyotaro Kanazawa, Tadashi Sugahara*, Naohiro Shinohara**

Department of Surgery, *Department of Radiology, **Department of Pathology, Jichi Medical School

To investigate the effectiveness of hyperthermia in the preoperative combined treatment of radiation, chemotherapy and hyperthermia for rectal carcinoma, two groups were compared. Group A consisted of 18 patients in whom hyperthermia, radiation and chemotherapy were performed. Group B consisted of 18 patients in whom only chemotherapy and radiation were performed. The total dose of radiation in both of the two groups was 40.5 Gy, and a radiation field covering the whole pelvis was used. Hyperthermia was performed using 8 MHz radiofrequency waves (Thermotron RF8, Yamamoto Vinyter, Japan), and tumors were heated at about 42 degrees C for 50 minutes. Hyperthermia was repeated five times during the preoperative treatment. Chemotherapy was performed by giving 5-fluorouracil suppositories to a total dose of 3400 mg. Mean tumor reduction rates on barium enema were 31.8% in group A and 18.2% in group B. The difference was statistically significant. The result of the histological assessment of tumor necrosis showed that there was a significantly higher degree of necrosis in group A than in group B. These results showed that the addition of hyperthermia enhanced tumor necrosis. It was concluded that the addition of hyperthermia would be an effective preoperative treatment of rectal carcinoma.

Key words
rectal carcinoma, local recurrence of rectal carcinoma, preoperative radiation, hyperthermia

Reprint requests
Fumio Konishi Department of Surgery Jichi Medical School
3311-1 Yakushiji, Minamikawachimachi, Kawachigun, Tochigiken, 329-04 JAPAN

Accepted
November 1, 1993

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