News article on the evolving role of hyperthermia in cancer therapy

Feb 3 2010

BSD Medical Corp. (NASDAQ:BSDM) reports publication of a news article by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute on the evolving role of hyperthermia in cancer therapy titled, “International Study of Hyperthermia Spurs Hope in U.S.” (J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 2010 102: 79-81; doi:10.1093/jnci/djp530). The article reviewed the history of hyperthermia in cancer therapy, including the challenges faced by hyperthermia advocates and the progress that has been made in addressing these challenges. The article stated that, “Successful use of targeted heat therapy with chemotherapy in treatment of soft-tissue sarcoma has given U.S. advocates of local hyperthermia new hope that the treatment they so believe in will now be taken seriously.”

“With all the efforts to find new treatments that are more tumor selective and less toxic, it is astonishing that an existing treatment that is relatively tumor selective, has a low toxicity, and that in clinical studies has been shown to result in considerable benefit, receives so little attention.”

The article reviewed the EORTC/NCI Phase III multicenter randomized study on 341 high risk soft-tissue sarcoma patients, which showed a significant improvement in disease-free survival and demonstrated that patients were 30% more likely to be alive and cancer-free almost three years after starting treatment if hyperthermia was added to their chemotherapy treatment. All institutions who participated in the study, including Duke University Medical Center, used the BSD 2000 Deep Regional Hyperthermia System to administer hyperthermia.

The article quoted Rolf Issels, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of medical oncology at Klinikum Grosshadern Medical Center at the University of Munich and the lead researcher on the Phase III sarcoma study, who stated that the findings, “provide a new standard treatment option, and we believe they are likely to change the way many specialists treat these tumors.” Dr. Issels discussed the impact of the results of the Phase III sarcoma study on the field of hyperthermia and concluded, “…the implications of these findings are more far-reaching.” “This is also the first clear evidence that targeted heat therapy adds to chemotherapy.”

The author of the article, Renee Twombly, interviewed leading hyperthermia researchers for the publication. Two leading hyperthermia researchers from Duke, Dr. Zeljko Vujaskovic and Dr. Mark Dewhirst, discussed the history and clinical application of hyperthermia. Jacoba van der Zee, M.D., Ph.D., the Erasmus MC–Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center in Rotterdam, a leader in the field of hyperthermia, stated that, “With all the efforts to find new treatments that are more tumor selective and less toxic, it is astonishing that an existing treatment that is relatively tumor selective, has a low toxicity, and that in clinical studies has been shown to result in considerable benefit, receives so little attention."

Elizabeth A. Repasky, Ph.D., of Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, N.Y., and president of the Society for Thermal Medicine stated, "We are on a verge, I think, of a major new adjuvant cancer therapy that will not replace chemotherapy or radiation, but will make them work a lot better." The Society for Thermal Medicine promotes research into the clinical application of hyperthermia.

SOURCE BSD Medical Corporation