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

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 different concentrations of magnetic nanoparticles (ferrofluid and magnetoliposomes) inside a phantom, after irradiating tissue-mimicking materials (phantoms) with a minimally invasive coaxial antenna working at a frequency of 2.45 GHz. This frequency was chosen because maximum dielectric loss of water molecules begins at 2.4 GHz and because this is an ISM (industrial, scientific and medical) frequency. Temperature sensors were placed inside and outside the tumor phantom to assess the focusing effect 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 ºC was obtained with a ferrofluid concentration of 13.2 mg/mL, whereas the increment in the reference phantom was only of ≈ 21 ºC. Concerning the magnetoliposomes, the temperature achieved was similar to that obtained with the ferrofluid but at a lesser concentration of nanoparticles. These results demonstrate that it is possible to achieve higher temperatures and to focus energy where the nanoparticles are located.