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[Studies on oxygen partial pressure in tumor tissue under radiotherapy and thermoradiotherapy]
J Füller1, H J Feldmann, M Molls
1Abteilung Strahlentherapie, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena.
Purpose:
Detection of radiation resistant hypoxic cells in poorly vascularized regions of tumors could facilitate selection of therapeutic schedules for the combination of radiotherapy and hyperthermia.
Patients And Methods:
In 29 patients (9 breast carcinomas, 8 soft tissue sarcomas, 8 lymph node metastases of head and neck cancers and 4 different other tumors) the oxygenation status was examined before, during and after radio- and partially thermoradiotherapy. It was registered using a needle electrode under local anesthesia. The pO2-values obtained from about 100 to 200 sites of an individual tumor were displayed as histograms (Eppendorf-pO2-Histograph, Hamburg).
Results:
Hypoxic tissue areas (pO2 < 5 mm Hg) was found more in sarcomas (10.2%) than in lymph node metastases of head and neck cancers (5.8%) and breast carcinomas (3.3%). We observed in the course of therapy increasing pO2 values (reoxygenation) only partially in the groups of breast carcinomas and cervical lymph node metastases, decreasing in the soft tissue sarcomas.
Conclusions:
In future the selection of patients for hyperthermia could be done on the base of pO2-measurements.