ABSTRACT
A major cause of deaths in cancer patients is metastatic dissemination of tumor cells to vital organs. The primary tumor can be successfully treated by surgery, radiation, or by combined local therapies. Since radiotherapy and cytotoxic drugs are immunosuppressive, thermotherapy or hyperthermia as an anticancer agent has received considerable attention. This chapter reviews the available literature to clarify if local or whole-body hyperthermia affects metastasis. If the heat-treated VX2 tumor was left in situ when host immunocompetence was increasing, the primary tumor as well as the metastasis in lymph nodes and lungs regressed with cure of 70% of the treated rabbits. All rabbits had lung and lymph node metastasis at autopsy. Increased incidence of bone metastasis in dogs occurred following whole-body hyperthermia at 42°C for 1 hr followed by 600 rad to the primary osteogenic sarcoma. Systemic metastasis developed in 64% of the patients in the melphalan group and in 60% of the patients in the melphalan/actinomycin D group.
