RADIOFREQUENCY CAPACITIVE HYPERTHERMIA COMBINED WITH IRRADIATION OR CHEMOTHERAPY FOR PATIENTS WITH INVASIVE BLADDER-CANCER

The immediate therapeutic clinical efficacy and long-term outcome of h yperthermia in combination with irradiation or chemotherapeutic agent was evaluated in 46 patients with invasive bladder cancer. Radiohypert hermia was performed in 19 cases and chemohyperthermia in 27 cases. Co mplete response (CR) was obtained in 5 and partial response (PR) in 15 of the 46 cases. Five-year survival rates by the Kaplan-Meier method were 43.8% in the CR/PR group and 18.3% in the no change (NC)/progress ive disease (PD) group, showing no difference of survival rate between the CR/PR group and the NC/PD group. The overall median survival peri od for the CR/PR group without metastasis was 61.6 months compared to 32.3 months for the NC/PD group without metastasis (P<0.05).