Hyperthermia and radiation induced MR diffusion changes in brain glioma tumour treatment

Interesting study from Iran on the influence of hyperthermia on healthy and diseased brain tissue.

Abstract:

Background: Glioblastoma multiform (GBM) is one of the most common primary brain-tumour. We expanded our hyperthermia (HT) experiments, for the GBM tumours, over the changes in the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) in MR imaging to assess thermal beneficial effects in combination to chemo-radiation therapy.

Patients and methods: There were 34 GBM patients in two equal groups of chemo-radiation therapy (or RT) and chemoradiation therapy plus HT (or RHT), and each group age ranging from 26 to 76 years. HT was done in 10-12 sessions for RHT group. ADC values were measured before and after treatments for tumour and brain tissues in both groups.

Result: There was a significant difference of ADC values before and after treatments in tumour region of RHT group (P =0.002) and it wasn’t significant in normal part of the brain tissue.

Conclusion: This preliminary study shows promising result when hyperthermia effect is assessed after short term evaluation in term of ADC changes.