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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Pathophysiological aspects of hyperthermia

subject

description

Blood flow in many rapidly growing tumors is sluggish leading to an impairment of convective heat dissipation which facilitates tumor heating compared to normal tissues. In addition, the compromised microcirculation causes a hostile metabolic micromilieu which can modulate the therapeutic effect of heat. After clinically relevant heat doses, a shut-down of tumor microcirculation is often observed creating a “heat-reservoir” and aggravating tumor hypoxia, acidosis, and substrate and energy depletion, factors which are known to greatly enhance tumor cell killing by heat. Since the mechanisms described are mostly derived from experimental results on fast-growing animal tumors, the clinical relevance, i.e., the applicability of these pathophysiological aspects to human tumors, has to be tested during clinical application of hyperthermia.