Induced tissue cell death by magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia for cancer treatment: an in silico study

Abstract

In this paper, we simulate magnetic hyperthermia process on a mathematical phantom model representing cancer tumor and its surrounding healthy tissues. The temperature distribution throughout the phantom model is obtained by solving the bio-heat equations and the consequent cell death amount is calculated using correlations between the tissue local temperature and the cell death rate. To have an estimate of heat generated from typical magnetic nanoparticles, magnetite nanoparticles are synthesized and the heat dissipation amount from the synthesized nanoparticles exposed to an alternating magnetic field is measured and used in the computer simulation. The impact of the amount of heat generated from the magnetic nanoparticles exposed to an alternating magnetic field, their distribution patterns in the tumor and hyperthermia process duration time on the cell death rate in both cancer and healthy tissues are investigated. It is indicated that while various factors contributing in the heat dissipation amount from the magnetic nanoparticles are important in the effectiveness of the magnetic hyperthermia process, the distribution pattern plays the major role in determining the efficiency of the process.