Magneto hyperthermia applied to in vitro liver tissue by using an external RF applicator

Around the world, hyperthermia equipment to treat cancer had been developed. These equipments work with different heating sources based on radio frequencies (RF), Microwaves (MW), ultrasound (US), etc. Some heating techniques used EM energy in a frequency range (0.5 MHz-2.45 GHz) from RF to MW. The main objective of EM hyperthermia is to treat depth lesions; however, to treat depth lessons wit MW is impossible because of the wave attenuation. If applicators work with RF the depth penetration increases, but it is impossible to have control of the heated region. To solve these problems, ferrofluids has been proposed. The goal of ferrofluids is to focus the EM energy and to avoid heat and damage in healthy tissue. Here, development and evaluation of a ferrofluid which can focus the EM energy by using an external RF applicator is presented. The applicator concentrates the EM energy in an area of ~ 4 cm × 3 cm. However, due to the large number of tumors that can occur in the human body there is needed to focus the energy deposition of the applicator. In this paper were presented tests about the ferrofluid behavior in liver tissue.