Comparing two focusing methods for microwave hyperthermia beamforming

In this communication, we report the comparison of two different methods to perform the beamforming task underlying microwave hyperthermia treatments. The first method belongs to the class of Time Reversal approaches, widely adopted in this applicative framework. The second method, rather new in this context and borrowed from antennas synthesis, pursues the focusing task within a constrained framework, that is imposing some bounds on the field level in healthy tissues. Despite its higher (conceptual rather than computational) complexity, this latter feature allows the second method to be very effective in terms of spatial selectivity, which indeed represents a crucial aspect of hyperthermic treatments.