Clinical effects of total-body hyperthermia combined with anticancer chemotherapy for far-advanced gastrointestinal cancer.

The authors treated 17 patients with far-advanced gastrointestinal cancer with extracorporeally induced total-body hyperthermia (TBHT) combined with anticancer chemotherapy. Although all patients' tumors were clinically resistant to prior chemotherapy with 1-(2-tetrahydrofurlyl)-5-fluorouracil or 5-fluorouracil and mitomycin C, three patients had an objective response to TBHT plus the same anticancer agents with or without cyclophosphamide. That is, a partial response was obtained in 2 of 12 patients with recurrent gastric cancer and in 1 of 5 patients with recurrent large bowel cancer. However, their survival time was not markedly prolonged. As a characteristic complication of TBHT, the authors noted reversible weakness of the muscles of the lower extremities. Two patients died due to hepatorenal syndrome; preoperatively these patients had manifested hepatic or renal dysfunction. Therefore, in patients with hepatic or renal dysfunction, the application of TBHT must be considered carefully.