Based on the analysis of clonogenic survival data for human colonic adenocarcinoma cells (WiDr) after a single heating, a new model is proposed to describe cell survival after hyperthermia quantitatively. The effects of heat are explained as heat-induced cell damage assuming a first-order (single-hit) and a second-order (cumulative damage) process. Thus cell survival at a specified temperature can be described by the linear-quadratic (LQ) model. The proposed model is based on an alternative definition of the (single) thermal dose, given as the (normalized) product of heating time and a specified nonlinear function of the increase in temperature (relative to a threshold temperature) to be interpreted as the thermal dose rate. In further analogy to the modeling of the effects of low-dose-rate radiation, an inherent capacity of the cells to repair sublethal damage is assumed, and these effects are quantified by the usual g factor measuring incomplete repair effects. The model defines thermal dose-response and isoeffect dose relationships, enabling a direct (i. e. single-step) analysis of the available thermal response data. Additionally, the analysis of our data based on heating times in the range from 0 to 360 min and temperatures from 41 to 46 degrees C and covering a broad spectrum of different densities of cells seeded for colony formation did not yield any evidence of the existence of a breaking point usually derived from Arrhenius plots based on the single-hit, multitarget model and the Arrhenius equation. The model includes no specific assumptions describing the development of thermotolerance, which can be assumed to be negligible under our experimental conditions. The proposed thermal dose-response model correlates satisfactorily with the in vitro survival data for WiDr adenocarcinoma cells.