Simulation of heat transfer, mass transfer and tissue damage in magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia with blood vessels

Abstract

Numerical simulation of magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia for cancer treatment has been investigated in this study. The presented simulation did account for the effects of fluid flow, mass flow, and heat transfer during the MNP hyperthermia. The tumor was assumed to be a porous slab, 30% of which had been necrosed previously, with two capillaries, where magnetic nanoparticles were added into the bloodstream and distributed in the tumor by blood flow through capillaries. Fluid flow, mass transfer by capillaries, and interstitial tissues have been coupled in this study. Furthermore, tumor tissue damage has been calculated using a thermal damage indicator. The goal of this research is to find an optimum injection duration and exposure time in order to maximize hyperthermia treatment effectiveness using the BOBYQA optimization method. At the end of the 1-h time hyperthermia treatment, most of the non-necrotic tissue of the tumor were damaged. Moreover, the fraction of damaged tissue increased to more than 90% in some parts of the tumor. Results of this study indicate that MNP hyperthermia with the proposed setup can effectively damage the tumor in just one session, making it more susceptible to complementary therapies such as radiotherapy or chemotherapy.

Keywords: Cancer; Finite element method; Hyperthermia; Magnetic nanoparticles; Optimization; Transfer in porous media.