Predictors of Successful Whole-Body Hyperthermia in Cancer Patients: Target Temperature Achievement and Safety Analysis.

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness and safety of whole-body hyperthermia (WBH) in cancer patients, identifying predictive factors for successful treatment (reaching target temperature ≥ 38.5 °C) and assessing adverse effects.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective analysis of 397 cancer patients receiving a total of 855 WBH treatment sessions at a single institution between January 2018 and December 2018.

Results

A total of 855 WBH treatments were performed on 397 patients (76.6% female; median age 58 years). The most common cancer types included breast cancer (52.4%), followed by prostate cancer (13.1%) and gynecological cancers (10.6%), with 54.7% of patients having metastatic disease. Target temperature was reached in 90.1% (770 of 855) of sessions, with a median treatment time of 202 min and maximum temperature of 40.4 °C. Common side effects included headache (54.9%), skin reactions (11.7%), and cardiac effects (9.4%), with no serious adverse events. Serum creatinine (p = 0.01, OR 0.30, 95% CI: 0.11-0.78) and secale cornutum/galena co-medication during WBH (p < 0.001, OR 0.26 [0.12, 0.54]) emerged as independent predictors of achieving target temperature in multivariate analysis. Both elevated creatinine levels and the use of secale cornutum/galena were associated with an approximately 70% lower probability of achieving the target temperature.

Conclusions

WBH demonstrates safety in cancer patients with high success rates in reaching target temperatures. Both elevated creatinine levels and the use of secale cornutum/galena were associated with a lower chance of reaching the target temperature and thus impacting and predicting WBH success.