Simulation of tumor ablation in hyperthermia cancer treatment: A parametric study

A holistic simulation framework is established on magnetic hyperthermia modeling to solve the treatment process of tumor, which is surrounded by a healthy tissue block. The interstitial tissue fluid, MNP distribution, temperature profile, and nanofluids are involved in the simulation. Study evaluates the cancer treatment efficacy by cumulative-equivalent-minutes-at-43 centigrade (CEM43), a widely accepted thermal dose coming from the cell death curve. Results are separated into the conditions of with or without gravity effect in the computational domain, where two baseline case are investigated and compared. An optimal treatment time 46.55 min happens in the baseline case without gravity, but the situation deteriorates with gravity effect where the time for totally killing tumor cells prolongs 36.11% and meanwhile causing 21.32% ablation in healthy tissue. For the cases without gravity, parameter study of Lewis number and Heat source number are conducted and the variation of optimal treatment time are both fitting to the inverse functions. For the case considering the gravity, parameters Buoyancy ratio and Darcy ratio are investigated and their influence on totally killing tumor cells and the injury on healthy tissue are matching with the parabolic functions. The results are beneficial to the prediction of various conditions, and provides useful guide to the magnetic hyperthermia treatment.