Effect of injection strategy for nanofluid transport on thermal damage behavior inside biological tissue during magnetic hyperthermia

Magnetic hyperthermia is an alternative to conventional one for cancer treatment, which damages malignant cells by controlling treatment temperature to an acceptable range. The treatment temperature distribution mainly depends on both magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) distribution inside malignant tissue and the heat released by the MNPs after subjecting to an alternating magnetic field. The spatial distribution of MNPs inside malignant tissue is strongly affected by many factors studied and to be studied, which can be injection rate, injection time, injection dose, the pinhole size of syringe, and also diffusion time. Contrary to traditional injection with high rate (50 ul/min), this study proposes three injection strategies with low rate (5 ul/min) for nanofluid injection including continuous injection with constant rate, continuous injection with variable rate, and intermittent injection with constant rate under the same nanofluid dose (0.3 ml). All these injection strategies are proposed in order to obtain better nanofluid concentration distribution and further improve the treatment temperature distribution and the thermal damage situation for the malignant tissue. Simulation results show that all these proposed injection strategies, especially the continuous injection with variable rate, can effectively improve the physical field distribution for the nanofluid concentration, the treatment temperature, and the thermal damage situation inside malignant tissue.

Automated summary

Magnetic hyperthermia is an alternative cancer treatment method that involves controlling treatment temperature to damage malignant cells. This study proposes three injection strategies with low rate to improve the distribution of magnetic nanoparticles and enhance the treatment temperature distribution and thermal damage inside malignant tissue. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of these injection strategies in improving physical field distribution for nanofluid concentration, treatment temperature, and thermal damage inside malignant tissue.