[New developments in oncologic hyperthermia]

Hyperthermia between 40 and 45 degrees C is now recognized to radiosensitive tumors locally increasing local control. The more recent technological progress show the possibility of heating at depth while controlling temperature by opened NMR. In Germany and Netherland, hyperthermia is a standard treatment for cervix carcinomas and for some sarcomas. Many on going clinical trials has been recently opened and a European network of excellence "Eurotherm" is proposed. More recently thermo-sensitive liposomes has been proposed in the US for carrying and targeting not only chemotherapeutics agents but also gene therapies. In France, these deep heating techniques are not applied. Today, only microwave superficial hyperthermia, thermo ablation using either radiofrequencies or high focussed ultrasound, and loco regional heating by intraperitoneal perfusion or by external circulation for tumors of the extremities, are in clinical evaluation. Is appears suitable to define clinical French teams, that could evaluate the clinical use of deep heating by the more recent developed techniques.