Challenges of the clinical application of hyperthermia for head and neck tumors

Introducing hyperthermia in a clinical setting requires primarily the focused effort of a dedicated and highly motivated multi-disciplinary team that minimally consists of a medical/radiation oncologist, a physicist and a hyperthermia technician. In early days application of hyperthermia was mainly applied following an experience and expertise based procedure. The rapid evolutions of modern technology, like hyperthermia treatment planning and non-invasive thermometry enables new advanced methods for controlled delivery of hyperthermia. However, new advanced methods bring also new demands to the clinical staff involved. A very interesting problem is already the definition of the target for hyperthermia. A secondary challenge is to assure that what we predicted by treatment planning is also what we deliver to the patient. Solutions to these challenges are possible but come step by step. Some of these steps in the development of the HyperCollar system as used for hyperthermia treatment of head and neck tumors are reported.