Magnetic resonance, hyperthermia and oncology

Hyperthermic oncology deals with selective tumour cell killing by induced l ocal or general heating to temperatures between 41 degrees C and 45 degrees C. The technique of magnetic resonance (MR) has been used for the non-inva sive study of metabolic changes occurring as a result of hyperthermia, as w ell as for delivering hyperthermia using the radiofrequency coils used for the MR studies. This study demonstrates the feasibility of combining the fi elds of MR and hyperthermic oncology successfully and presents the results from unanesthetized tumour-bearing mice. The efficiencies of both heating a nd MR signal collection were maximized by the use of the same coil, tuned t o the phosphorus resonance frequency at 2.0 T.