Hyperthermia has been found to be a useful modality for cancer therapy. In this report, a biocompatible, ferrimagnetic glass-ceramic capable of inducing localized hyperthermia by hysteresis heating upon exposure to an alternating magnetic field is presented. When the glass-ceramic was placed in the region of a subcutaneously transplanted, weakly antigenic breast carcinoma and subjected to the magnetic field, sufficient temperature rise was obtained to cause significant (approximately 50%) tumor regrowth delay and a 12% permanent control. The data demonstrate that glass-ceramic-mediated hysteresis heating may be a useful therapeutic approach in the treatment of cancer which offers the advantage of producing a highly localized and predictable tumor volume hyperthermia.

A method is described whereby, utilising a biocompatible magnetic glass-ceramic material, effective hysteresis heating in living tissue was accomplished. Initial experiments on mice showed that a significant heating effect can be obtained in the ceramic-impregnated regions. An analysis is also given for the projected safe operating field-frequency regime of the hysteresis therapy.

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