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In an effort to improve palliation and, perhaps, even cure of patients with persistent or recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck after irradiation and surgery or chemotherapy, researchers at Memorial Medical Center of Long Beach (Calif) have treated such patients with interstitial hyperthermia concomitant with interstitial irradiation (thermoendocurie therapy). A. A. Puthawala and coworkers reported their initial experience with this approach at the Second International Head and Neck Oncology Research Conference. Forty-four patients with a biopsy-proven diagnosis of recurrent and/or persistent squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck received thermoendocurie therapy for salvage. All patients had previously either undergone a course of external irradiation to doses of 66 to 80 Gy as a definitive treatment, or had received preoperative or postoperative treatment to doses of 50 to 60 Gy. The majority of these patients had also received systemic chemotherapy.
The treatment modality consisted of two interstitial