Oncothermia with Chemotherapy in the Patients with Small-Cell Lung Cancer

Abstract

Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) is one of the most aggressive and lethal forms of lung cancers. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy would be standard modality for SCLC with median survival being less than 4 months only. Complementary treatment to chemotherapy is desired. Oncothermia will be one of the candidates to this addition. We have made a study of 31 SCLC patients from April 2006 to March 2012. 23 cases were treated with combined chemotherapy and oncothermia, and 8 cases were treated with chemotherapy alone. Three patients from 14 patients (14/31) died in the study period; there were equal numbers in the two arms, including one long survival case of 28 months and one of 26 months, in the combination and chemo-group, respectively .16 patients (16/31) are alive: 4 patients with chemotherapy only, including one long survival case of 28.7 months, and 11 cases with combined therapy including three long survival cases of more than 3 years. We conclude that the combined use of chemotherapy and oncothermia has significantly enhanced the survival rate in comparison with the use of chemotherapy alone (log-rank test: P value < 0.02).