Investigation of heat distribution during magnetic heating treatment using a polyurethane–ferrofluid phantom-model

• The temperature profile by magnetic hyperthermia was examined.
• A model was built to get a deeper understanding of the temperature profile.
• The temperature profile of the model inside magnetic fields was measured.
• Based on the model a simulation of the temperature profile was performed.
• The simulated temperature profile agreed well with the measured profile.

Magnetic heating treatment can be used as an adjuvant treatment for cancer therapy. In this therapy, magnetic nanoparticles are enriched inside the tumour and exposed to an alternating magnetic field. Due to magnetic losses the temperature in the tumour rises. The resulting temperature profile inside the tumour is useful for the therapeutic success. In this context heat transfer between tissue with nanoparticles and tissue without nanoparticles is a highly important feature which is actually not understood in detail. In order to investigate this, a phantom has been created which can be used to measure the temperature profile around a region enriched with magnetic nanoparticles. This phantom is composed of a material, which has similar thermal conductivity as human tissue. A tempered water bath surrounds the phantom to establish a constant surrounding temperature simulating the heat sink provided by the human body in a real therapeutic application. It has been found that even at a low concentration of magnetic nanoparticles around 13 mg/ml, sufficient heating of the enriched region can be achieved. Moreover it has been observed that the temperature drops rapidly in the material surrounding the enriched region. Corresponding numerical investigations provide a basis for future recalculations of the temperature inside the tumour using temperature data obtained in the surrounding tissue.