Methods of External Hyperthermic Heating (Clinical Thermology)

The development of equipment capable of producing and monitoring safe, effective and predictable hyperthermia treatments represents a major challenge. The main problem associated with any heating technique is the need to adjust and control the distribution of absorbed power in the tissue during treatment. Power distribution is considered adequate only when tumor tissue can be maintained at the required hyperthermic levels while, at the same time, healthy tissue is not overheated. This problem is particularly crucial when external heating devices are used to produce hyperthermia. Ex­ ternal hyperthermia refers to those methods which supply heat to tumor tissue in an external, noninvasive manner, as opposed to internal hyperther­ mia by which heat is supplied to tumor tissue in situ. Until recently, most of the technical developments and clinical trials of ther­ motherapy for superficial and deep tumors have been based on elec­ tromagnetic systems. Presently, there is increasing interest in the use of ultra­ sound to accomplish these goals. Electromagnetic techniques of external thermotherapy include radiative, capacitive, and, to a lesser extent, inductive procedures. Recent designs for radiative applicators have incorporated microstrip structures. These have the advantage of being compact and lightweight compared with dielectrically loaded waveguide applicators.