Simulation of thermal effects in magnetic hyperthermia
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Hyperthermia has been widely used in cancer treatment to destroy tumors. The important concept behind the technique is to heat a specific region, like a tumor so that above a threshold temperature the tumor cells are destroyed. This procedure, known as magnetic fluid hyperthermia (MFH), relies on feeding the nanofluid containing magnetic nanoparticle (MNP) into growth, then applying an external magnetic force field. In the present paper, the Pennes bioheat transfer equation is adopted to model the thermal tumor ablation in the context of magnetic nanoparticles. Numerical simulations are carried out considering different injection sites for the nanoparticles in an attempt to achieve better hyperthermia conditions. Employing a thermo-fluid model developed in ANSYS® FLUENT, the thermal influence inside the tumor is studied. The simulation permits the improvement of the most parameters concerned within the heating method of the tumor. It has been observed that the number of injection sites and their locations inside the tumor play an important role to achieve the desired temperature distribution within the tumor.