Clinical trials of long-term RF local hyperthermia for advanced gastric cancer.

The effect of local hyperthermotherapy (HT) using 13.56-MHz radiofrequency (RF) capacitive heating was evaluated in 25 patients with unresectable or recurrent gastric cancer. HT was carried out once to 3 times a week for a duration of one hour at each session. Patients who underwent RF-HT frequently showed maintenance of performance status, symptomatic improvement and a reduction in tumor size. Moreover, the survival time of 9 patients who had numerous metastases to the distant peritoneum was significantly high (p less than 0.01), compared with 42 historical control patients who also had massive peritoneal dissemination, but had not received HT. The results of this study therefore indicate RF-HT to be a favorable modality in the palliative treatment of patients with far-advanced gastric cancer.