Clinical hyperthermia in the 1990s: does the buck stop here?

Clinical hyperthermia in the USA is entering difficult times. To describe the present state of this art (1) all of the clinical manuscripts published in the International Journal of Hyperthermia and the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics in the period from 1 January 1990 to 30 June 1993 were reviewed; (2) the Radiotherapy Research Division of the National Cancer Institute was queried as to existing extramural funding of clinical hyperthermia projects; and (3) individual institutions known to have active clinical research programmes in hyperthermia were surveyed as to the status of current studies. At the present time there are no hyperthermia trials being conducted by US cooperative groups. The majority of reports and active scientific protocols continue to deal with phase I and pilot studies. Many studies in several sites continue to suggest improvement in CR rate and local control over historical controls when hyperthermia is used as an adjunct to radiotherapy; however phase III proof of these hypotheses is still lacking. Extramural funding of clinical hyperthermia is limited and third party funding is decreasing. Details and future portents are discussed.