Experimental breast-cancer treatment, oncothermia, sees positive results

Suphan Srithamma, director-general of the Public Health Ministry’s Department of Medical Services, said Thailand had seen its men suffer the most from liver cancer, while females suffered from breast cancer. 

The risk factors for liver cancer are hepatitis infection and liver flukes, he said. Only 10-15 per cent of liver-cancer patients can be treated by surgery, while the rest are subjected to palliative treatment and most of them live only two to three months. 

As for breast cancer, whose survival rate averages five years after diagnosis, he said nearly all patients at the NCI were in the first stage. However, as they enter the third and fourth stages, the survival rate will drop to 30-50 per cent. 

Suphan said the NCI’s use of oncothermia had initially yielded good results, so if further studies confirmed its effectiveness, he would propose a policy for its wider usage in treating cancer patients, starting at the department’s regional oncology centres.

NCI director Dr Weerawut Imsamran said the institute had carried out research on oncothermia, concentrating heat of 42-43 degrees Celsius on the area of the malignant tumour to kill cancerous cells without causing inflammation, as an alternative treatment or alongside the conventional methods to increase the patients’ survival rate. Initial results were satisfactory, so the NCI will do further studies.

Dr Somchai Thanasitthichai, NCI assistant director for research, said the first study began in December 2012, and was divided into two sub-projects. The first studied the shrinkage rate of breast-cancer tumours in 30 Stage III patients who were subjected to oncothermia and chemotherapy in comparison with those treated without oncothermia. The second sub-project compared survival longevity between terminally ill liver-cancer patients who were treated with oncothermia and those who received palliative treatment. 

The breast-cancer study found that 22 per cent of the patients saw their tumours shrinking or disappearing, while none of those treated without oncothermia saw such shrinkage. 

The liver-cancer study found 25 per cent of the patients responded to the oncothermia and their survival rate was about 15 months, while those failing to respond to the treatment had a survival rate of 2.7 months. Somchai said liver patients who were treated without oncothermia had a survival rate of 2.2 months. 

“The studies showed that oncothermia has the potential to treat breast cancer along with chemotherapy – as the heat targeted cancerous tumours and thus allowed chemotherapy access to eradicate the malignant cells better – and it might be an additional alternative treatment for terminally ill liver cancer patients.” 

He added that oncothermia usage was currently still being analysed. “It might be available for public access pending further studies,” he said.