Hyperthermic Intrathoracic Chemotherapy (HITHOC) and Mesothelioma

Cutting edge cancer treatment could offer new treatment for mesothelioma patients.

Pleural mesothelioma is a particularly aggressive cancer. Despite advances in modern medicine, survival rates remain low. The University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center estimates that only 10% of patients live five years beyond their initial mesothelioma diagnoses. 

Fortunately, scientists are constantly researching new treatments for asbestos-illnesses and cancers like mesothelioma.

While there is no recognized cure for any cancer, researchers believe that hyperthermic intrathoracic chemotherapy—a new, experimental treatment—could extend survival. 

What exactly is asbestos?

Asbestos is an industrial term for six naturally occurring minerals known for being inherently strong, resilient, and heat-resistant. For decades, it was a mainstay of American industry. Between the early 20^th century and late 1970s, asbestos could be found in everything from automotive parts to vinyl tiles and floor paint. 

What’s the problem with asbestos?

However, asbestos’s durability is also its greatest danger. When people are exposed to asbestos—at work, outside, or in their own home—they could inhale crumbled fibers. Over time, these fibers can accumulate inside the lungs, scarring tissue and causing irreversible inflammation.

Asbestos can also provoke genetic mutations, which may prompt cells to multiply uncontrollably. 

When these cells begin to accumulate, they can form cancerous tumors. Physicians diagnose a cancer as malignant pleural mesothelioma when it occurs in the pleural lining of the lungs or chest cavity. 

However, malignant pleural mesothelioma can also migrate to other parts of the body, affecting a variety of critical organs and systems. 

What exactly is Heated Intrathoracic Chemotherapy (HITHOC)?

Heated Intrathoracic Chemotherapy (HITHOC) can be a supplemental treatment for mesothelioma.

Hyperthermic intrathoracic chemotherapy is an experimental type of chemotherapy, employed immediately after a major tumor-removal surgery. 

Sometimes referred to by its acronym, HITHOC, this new technique for cancer treatment involves:

• Surgery

Hyperthermic intrathoracic chemotherapy is performed only during surgical procedures. The first step in HITHOC treatment is the surgical resection, during which your doctor will attempt to identify and remove visible cancerous tumors. 

• Chemotherapy

After the surgeon removes visible cancerous tumors, the surgical team “bathes” the chest cavity in cancer-killing chemotherapeutic agents. 

• Hyperthermia

Chemotherapeutic medications are usually administered orally or intravenously. However, in a HITHOC procedure, the chemotherapeutic treatment is heated and injected directly into cancer-infected tissue. The combination of direct application and high temperatures—called hyperthermia—is believed to increase the efficacy of chemotherapy’s cancer-killing effects. 

How HITHOC Could Improve Patient Survival

Studies on HITHOC may have promising results:

Limited studies have shown that hyperthermic intrathoracic chemotherapy can improve patient longevity. 

A recent literature review, published in Oncotarget, suggests that nearly two-dozen reports on the efficacy of HITHOC found that patients who underwent the procedure had longer median survival times than patients who did not.

But mesothelioma is a resistant and aggressive type of cancer.

Even patients who undergo HITHOC may not conquer malignant pleural mesothelioma. 

The condition’s long latency period, coupled with the advanced age of most patients, makes extended, aggressive HITHOC treatments untenable.
Nevertheless, scientists believe that hyperthermic intrathoracic chemotherapy holds significant promise, especially for individuals whose mesothelioma is diagnosed at an early stage and has yet to spread beyond the outermost layers of the pleural lining.