N. Tsafnat and S. Jones (Australia)
: Ferromagnetic microsphere hyperthermia, numerical modeling, liver cancer
The majority of patients with primary or secondary liver cancer have inoperable disease and a poor prognosis [7]. The generally low response rates and side effects of estab lished therapies have motivated the development of ferro magnetic embolisation hyperthermia (FEH) as a potential treatment for liver cancer [14]. FEH involves delivering magnetic microspheres via arterial infusion to embolise the tumour's peripheral vasculature [2]. When exposed to a high frequency magnetic field the microspheres generate heat. The enhanced concentration of microspheres in the rim ensures preferential heating of the tumour while spar ing the normal liver tissue. This paper presents results of numerical analysis of FEH which aim to support experimental data, predict tem perature distributions, and provide insight into parametric variations such as microsphere dose and tumour size. Results indicate that heating a tumour via heat sources distributed around its periphery rather than throughout its volume creates a homogeneous temperature distribution in the tumour. Larger tumours display a superior heating rate and produce higher steady state temperatures than smaller tumours. These results encourage further development of FEH as a clinical treatment alternative for liver cancer pa tients.
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