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The recurrence of cancer sometimes poses a difficult problem for the clinician. The conventional treatment has already failed, and further treatment with radiation is often not advisable. In some cases, if the tumor is not operable and alternative chemical or hormonal therapies have failed, it may be possible to use hyperthermia alleviate the symptoms of cancer. The authors report their experience with 60 cancerous lesions for which conventional therapy had failed. Each lesion was then treated using a microwave or radiofrequency device to raise the temperature within the cancer to 42 degrees centigrade twice a week. A total of 6, 8, or 10 heating sessions were administered; 10 complete responses were observed. Although only 15 of the 60 lesions were adenocarcinomas, these cancers accounted for 6 of the 10 complete responses. In contrast, while 39 of the 60 cancers were squamous cell carcinomas, they accounted for only 3 of the 10 complete responses. Furthermore, long term local control, lasting over 54 months, was achieved for four patients with adenocarcinoma. The patients with other cancer types died within two years. These results indicate that hyperthermia may be a useful treatment for appropriately selected patients with adenocarcinoma. For other patients, hyperthermia may be useful for the alleviation of pain. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

The current randomized, multicenter, Phase III trial was conducted to determine whether the disease free interval and overall survival of patients with T2–T4,N0–N3,M0 squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the oral cavity or oropharynx could be extended through the combination of surgery (and radiotherapy, if required) with perilymphatic recombinant IL-2 (rIL-2). Patients with a resectable T2–T4,N0–N3,M0 SCC of the oral cavity and oropharynx were assigned randomly to receive surgery and radiotherapy or to receive IL-2, surgery, and radiotherapy. Five thousand units of rIL-2 were injected around the ipsilateral cervical lymph node chain daily for 10 days before surgery. After surgery, contralateral 5-day rIL-2 courses were administered monthly for 1 year. The differences in disease free and overall survival between the two groups of patients were evaluated statistically. Two hundred two patients finished the study. No significant complications related to rIL-2 were encountered, and surgery and radiotherapy were not hampered by its prior administration. Multivariate analysis conducted to determine the extent to which survival was influenced by rIL-2 and the other variables showed that rIL-2 significantly lengthened disease free survival (P < 0.01) and that this resulted in longer overall survival (P < 0.03). The data emerging from this trial indicate that perilymphatic administration of low, nontoxic doses of rIL-2 is a simple and manageable way to delay recurrences of SCC. Cancer 2002;95:90–7. © 2002 American Cancer Society. DOI 10.1002/cncr.10654