A Review of Current Microwave Cancer Therapy and Mechanism of Cell Death by Microwave Irradiation

Microwaves (frequency: 0.3‒300 GHz) have the ability to heat materials according to their dielectric properties and are used in microwave ovens for heating food and to yield improvements in the synthesis of medicine and decomposition of environmental pollutants, among other applications. In the medical field, microwaves have been used in cancer treatments such as hyperthermia and microwave coagulation therapy, and favorable treatment results have been obtained. Cancer treatments also have advantages for various types of cancers and have few serious side effects. In contrast, in cancer cell death by microwave heating, the cells are reportedly killed via different pathways compared with that by normal heating. In the future, the treatment efficiency needs to be improved, and the associated side effects can be reduced by analyzing the cell death mechanism in detail. In this review, we outline the latest methods of microwave cancer therapy and introduce the mechanism of cancer cell death by microwave irradiation with a focus on authorsʼ reports.