Hyperthermia for the Engineer: A Short Biological Primer

The current concepts of cancer treatment center around the need for preferential killing of malignant cells. Hyperthermia may offer a means of doing so, not because of the inherent heat sensitivity of cancer cells, but because of the physical environment in which many cells of solid tumors find themselves. Nutritional deprivation, low pH, and chronic hypoxia characterize the interior of many tumors and are conditions that also render cells heat sensitive.