ARTICLE
Volume 4,Issue 2
31 December 2025
Hyperthermia in Combination with Radiation versus Radiation Alone for Superficial Tumors: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Sicong Wang ,
Yanglong Wu ,
Congcong Wu
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1
The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children’s Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325000, Zhejiang, China,
2
Wenzhou Medical University Renji College, Wenzhou 325000, Zhejiang, China,
OTD 2025 , 3(4), 16–25;
https://doi.org/10.26689/otd.v3i4.13343
© 2025 by the Authors. Licensee Whioce Publishing, Singapore. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract
Objective: Aim to evaluate the efficacy of hyperthermoradiotherapy (HTRT) VS radiation therapy (RT) alone in patients with superficial tumors, mainly including breast cancer, head and neck cancer, and melanoma. The study undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis, and a preset subgroup analysis. Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted of the PubMed database and the bibliographies of related studies. Results: A total of 15 articles (n = 1368) met our eligibility criteria. The meta-analysis of all patients in 19 groups from 15 articles showed HTRT with significant improvement in complete response (CR) versus the RT group (OR = 2.393, 95% CI 1.749–3.274, p = 0.000) with high heterogeneity (χ2 = 33.67, p = 0.014, I2 = 46.5%). Conclusion: HTRT have significant improvement in CR versus RT alone in superficial tumors. A well-researched but maybe underutilized method, HT can have a major clinical impact by improving local tumor management.
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