This work presents the first investigation of gold nanorods (GNRs)-based photothermal therapy of the pancreas tumor using the Monte Carlo-based code implemented with Geant4 Application for Emission Tomography (GATE). The model of a human pancreas was obtained by segmenting an abdominal computed tomography (CT) scan, and its physical and chemical properties, were obtained from experimental and theoretical data. In GATE, GNRs-mediated hyperthermal therapy, simple heat diffusion as well as interstitial laser ablation were then modeled in the pancreas tumor by defining the optical parameters of this tissue when it is loaded with GNRs. Two different experimental setups on ex vivo pancreas tissue and GNRs-embedded water were devised to benchmark the developed Monte Carlo-based model for the hyperthermia in the pancreas alone and with GNRs, respectively. The influence of GNRs on heat distribution and temperature increase within the pancreas tumor was compared for two different power values (1.2 W and 2.1 W) when the tumor was exposed to 808 nm laser irradiation and with two different laser applicator diameters. Benchmark tests demonstrated the possibility of the accurate simulating of NPs-assisted thermal therapy and reproducing the experimental data with GATE software. Then, the output of the simulated GNR-mediated hyperthermia emphasized the importance of the precise evaluation of all of the parameters for optimizing the preplanning of cancer thermal therapy. Simulation results on temperature distribution in the pancreas tumor showed that the temperature enhancement caused by raising the power was increased with time in both the tumor with and without GNRs, but it was higher for the GNR-load tumor compared to tumor alone.
Keywords: GATE; Monte Carlo; gold nanorods; pancreas cancer; simulation; thermal therapy.