IMPROVED THERMAL ABLATION EFFICACY USING MAGNETIC NANOPARTICLES: A STUDY IN TUMOR

Magnetic heating used for inducing hyperthermia and thermal ablation is particularly promising in the treatment of cancer provided that the therapeutic temperature is kept constant during the treatment time throughout the targeted tissue and the healthy surrounding tissues are maintained at a safe temperature. The present study shows the temperature increment produced by difierent concentrations of magnetic nanoparticles (ferro∞uid and magnetoliposomes) inside a phantom, after irradiating tissue- mimicking materials (phantoms)with a minimally invasive coaxial antenna working at a frequency of 2.45GHz. This frequency was chosen because maximum dielectric loss of water molecules begins at 2.4GHz and because this is an ISM (industrial, scientiflc and medical) frequency. Temperature sensors were placed inside and outside the tumor phantom to assess the focusing efiect of heat produced by nanoparticles. Results have shown that the temperature increments depend on the nanoparticles concentration. In this way, a temperature increment of more than 56 - C was obtained with a ferro∞uid concentration of 13.2mg/mL, whereas the increment in the reference phantom was only of … 21 - C. Concerning the magnetoliposomes, the temperature achieved was similar to that obtained with the ferro∞uid but at a lesser concentration of nanoparticles. These results