Heat helps in cancer treatment

16:12, 23 September 2009

BERLIN. September 23. KAZINFORM Cancer patients whose tumors are targeted with heat treatment as well as chemotherapy are more likely to stay alive and cancer-free for longer than those who receive only chemotherapy, researchers said on Tuesday; Kazinform refers to China Daily.

The finding suggests it may be possible to cut the dose of chemotherapy drugs by using heat, although more research is needed to establish this, they said.

German researchers looking at cancers in soft tissues such as muscle, fat and tissue around the joints, found that heat treatment more than doubled the proportion of patients whose tumors responded to chemotherapy.

Importantly, the process did not increase the harmful effects of chemotherapy treatment.

Shares in BSD Medical, which makes the heat treatment system used in the German study, more than doubled in early trade and were the biggest gainers on the Nasdaq market. The stock was 120 percent higher at $4.13 by 1350 GMT.

"We expect our findings will encourage other researchers to test the approach in other locally advanced cancers," said Rolf Issels, a professor of medical oncology at the University of Munich in Germany; Kazinform cites China Daily.

See www.chinadaily.com.cn for full version

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