Hyperthermia and Cancer Therapy: A Review of Biomedical Engineering Contributions and Challenges

In this paper, we attempt to give an overview of the status of hyperthermia as a modality for cancer treatment from an engineer´s point of view. By hyperthermia we mean elevating the tumor tissue to the temperature range of 42-50°C and holding it at this temperature for 30 min-1 h. We give a brief history of the field, some comments on the biological rationale, and a survey of present methods for producing hyperthermia using electromagnetic and ultrasonic techniques. Finally, we give some comments on the success of present systems in achieving the specifications set by the clinicians and suggest some fundamental problems we feel need to be solved if hyperthermia is going to be able to make a contribution to the cure and control of this disease.