Selective nano-thermal therapy of human retinoblastoma in retinal laser surgery

Abstract

In this research, an experimental validated predictive finite element model of a cancerous human eye is developed to investigate how the tumor cells in retinoblastoma can be selectively damaged in the course of laser irradiation. In the computational modeling, the tumor is assumed to be in the initial growth stages and located in the macular zone. The statistical calculations testify that an 8.5% improvement in our estimation of the experimental temperature inside the normal human eye compared to those provided by the previous model has been achieved. Under the surgical conditions, the at-risk regions are determined, and the thermal responses of the tissue to various intrinsic and operating factors are obtained and discussed. Our findings indicate that, in the same amount of exposure time, introducing biodegradable nanoparticles in a concentration of 0.2 into the tumor tissue can increase the lethal zone area by 51 percent, and could plays an effective role in surviving of corneal injury.

Keywords: Human eye; Lethal zone; Nanoparticle injection; Retinoblastoma.