Radiation Planning for Thermal Laser Treatment

Summary A dosimetry model was developed for the thermal laser treatment of biological tissue and applied to laser-induced thermotherapy of organ tumors. This model combines a Monte Carlo simulation for calculating photon distribution in the target volume, a finite difference method for computing heat dissipation and the Arrhenius formalism for predicting protein denaturation and subsequent tissue damage. Implementation was carried out on a Windows-based platform and enabled the three-dimensional control of the target volume. An in vitro evaluation in porcine liver revealed a difference of less than 7% with regard to the ablation volume.