Haim I. Bicher - Böcker

It can honestly be said that the scope and magnitude of this meeting surpassed initial expectations with respect to the number and quality of the papers presented. Our group has grown since we last met in Dortmund in 1971. This is a good indication that a spiraling of our interests has taken place with the effects of the initial good work felt, not just in one corner of the globe, but in all four. With such a start, it was only appropriate that an international society was formed at the meeting to further coordinate our mutual undertaking. Henceforth it shall be known as the International Society of Oxygen Transport to Tissue. A final note of acknowledgement should be made to those who were in the supporting cast, not only in making the meeting in Charleston and Clemson a success, but also in the compiling of this book. Gratitude is due to Dr. Daniel H. Hunt for his efforts, the end product of which you have in your hands. Considerable service was rendered by Mr. Robert J. Adams, Mr. Buddy Bell and Mr. Nathan Kaufman during the symposium itself. Much typing, organizing and record keeping was done by our lovely secretaries, Laura B. Grove, Muff Graham and Kaye Y. Zook.

Hyperthennia is rapidly becaning the fourth IIDdality of cancer treatment, at least a useful adjuvant to radiation therapy, chEfiO- therapy or surgery; at best, a new therapeutic fonn that, properly used, may open new horizons in the fight against this dreadful disease. The staging is still primitive. The devices used are after laboratory irrprovisations, and lack the precision and definition of treatment fields that will allow mass use of the m:Xiality. Clinical practices are limited to the procedural evaluations of a few pioneer groups, and basic understanding of its mechanism of action, although progressing by leaps and bounds, is still short of perfection. The challenge and the pranise are there and because of this, p engineers, physicists, biologists, physiologists and clinicians fran different specialties have a basic need for interaction, both in tenus of exchange of scientific infonnation and peer review of results and clinical trials. To satisfy this need, to act as a clearinghouse of knowledge and a fonnn for discussion, the North Alrerican Hyperthennia Group (NAHG) has been fonned. The!reeting in Detroit in August 1981 represents the first gathering of the group, to be followed by a second in Salt Lake City in April 1982.

Hyperthermia as a safe and effective cancer treatment modality is rapidly evolving propelled by widespread research and clinical efforts worldwide. Presentations on Hyperthermia experience are now commonplace at Oncology meetings, as are congresses dedicated entirely to the intertwined interactions between basic sciences and patient treatment that together are forming the structure of a new medical specialty. Such was the XII International Symposium on Clinical Hyperthermia held in Rome, Italy, April 27 - 29, 1989. Papers presented therein constitute the backbone of this book. Biology research has provided data describing mechanisms of action for the cancer cell killing and physiological effects of Hyperthermia. Physics research has led to the development of equipment enabling treatment of many areas of the human body, as well as explained the limitations that still constrain our ability to treat, especially in the areas of deep seated tumor heating and non-invasive thermometry. The main question that will decide the future of this modality is that of its clinical use. To put it succinctly, what do we do with this potentially useful tool in an everyday clinical oncological practice . •• ? This is the main question addressed in this book as "Consensus on Hyperthermia for the 1990s. " The book in­ cludes 28 presented papers and 25 invited chapters from some of the leading experts in the field. Their basic mechanisms of action were physics principles, treatment quality assurance and especially, clinical indications.

These papers stem from the ISOTT Meeting held at Churchill College, Cambridge, from July 27th to 30th, 1986. Although the sun did not shine so brightly as during the Cambridge meeting in 1977, the communications and discussions were as lively and informative and some heat, as well as light, was generated in the presentation of differing views. The meeting was conducted in a generally informal way which allowed maximum time for discussion but the relatively unstructured nature of the debates made them unsuitable for publication. The amount of editing necessary meant that the printed version of the exchanges would bear little resemblance to the original, hence their omission. All the papers presented here have been scrutinized and retyped in a standard format. However, the diverse interests of ISOTT's members, reflected in the wide spectrum of the material submitted, made total editorial uniformity an unrealistic goal. Complete consistency in the use of symbols, abbreviations and units seemed less important than speed of publication.