ABSTRACT
Cancers are still among the leading causes of death in the world. Despite the signifi cant efforts invested in various therapeutic strategies such as radiation therapy, surgery, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and combined treatments, limited effi cacy of present curative methodologies remains a hurdle to overcome. For example, inadequate drug dosages reaching the tumor and the growing phenomena of drug resistance (Wang et al. 2009). Recently, the application of heat to eliminate or restrain specifi c cancer cells is proposed as an encouraging approach in optimizing cancer therapy. This non-invasive technique is generally referred to as hyperthermia or thermotherapy (Wust et al. 2002), in which biological tissues are exposed to elevated temperatures to promote protein denaturation together with membrane disruption, leading to cell death. The key facts of thermotherapy are listed in Table 1. Although this type of treatment has been under investigation for a period, the main challenge of this therapy is to achieve selective application of the required energy to destroy tumors thermally.
