A new method for topology design of electromagnetic antennas in hyperthermia therapy

The topological derivative concept has been proved to be useful in many relevant applications such as topology optimization, inverse problems, image processing, multi-scale constitutive modeling, fracture mechanics and damage evolution modeling. In this work, we develop a new optimization method based on the topological derivative concept applied to the cancer treatment by hyperthermia. Hyperthermia therapy is a non-invasive medical treatment in which body tissue is artificially heated through electromagnetic waves, focusing the heat in cancerous cells undergoing apoptosis. The basic idea, therefore, consists in finding a distribution of heat source generated by electromagnetic antenna aiming to increase the temperature in the region occupied by the tumor, while keeping the temperature in the remainder part of the body. Numerical results are presented illustrating possible application of the proposed methodology to treatment of cancer by hyperthermia.