Hyperthermia for bone and soft tissue sarcoma: relationship between computerized tomographic and histological...

Between 1983 and 1992, 38 patients with 44 tumors of bone and soft tissue sarcoma were treated by hyperthermia combined with radiotherapy or chemotherapy. The overall response rate in this series was 48% (21/44). The average time for heating to 42 degrees C and the average maximum temperature did not correlate with the local effect. The percentage of the low density area on CT images and the average maximum temperature were well correlated. When 100% necrosis was evaluated as CR and up to 50% necrosis as PR, the local response rate was elevated from 42% to > 65%. Bone and soft tissue sarcomas are good targets for hyperthermia combined with radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Some tumors indicated for this study were too large to heat with the present heating apparatus. Percent low density and percent necrosis were correlated to some degree, but adoption of this phenomenon as a criterion for evaluation should be considered carefully.