A treatment planning platform for interstitial microwave hyperthermia was developed for practical, free-hand clinical implants. Such implants, consisting of non-parallel, moderately curved antennas with varying insertion depths, are used in HDR brachytherapy for treating locally advanced cancer.
Numerical models for commercially available MA251 antennas (915 MHz, BSD Medical) were developed in COMSOL Multiphysics, a finite element analysis software package. To expedite treatment planning, electric fields, power deposition and temperature rises were computed for a single straight antenna in 2D axisymmetric geometry. A precomputed library of electric field and temperature solutions was created for a range of insertion depths (5-12 cm) and blood perfusion rates (0.5-5 kg/m3/s). 3D models of multiple antennas and benchtop phantoms experiments using temperature-sensitive liquid crystal paper to monitor heating by curved antennas were performed for comparative evaluation of the treatment planning platform.
A patient-customizable hyperthermia treatment planning software package was developed in MATLAB with capabilities to interface with a commercial radiation therapy planning platform (Oncentra, Nucleotron), import patient and multicatheter implant geometries, calculate insertion depths, and perform hyperthermia planning with antennas operating in asynchronous or synchronous mode. During asynchronous operation, the net power deposition and temperature rises were approximated as a superposition sum of the respective quantities for one single antenna. During synchronous excitation, a superposition of complex electrical fields was performed with appropriate phasing to compute power deposition. Electric fields and temperatures from the pre-computed single-antenna library were utilized following appropriate non-rigid coordinate transformations. Comparison to 3D models indicated that superposition of electric fields around parallel antennas is valid when they are at least 15 mm apart. Phantom experiments with curved antennas produced temperature profiles quite similar to those created using the planning system.
The hyperthermia planning software allowed users to select power and phasing, assess the corresponding 3D contours of energy and temperature, and optimize treatment parameters through gradient search techniques. The system produces fairly accurate temperature distributions in cases when the antennas are at least 15 mm apart.
Microwave ablation is a minimally invasive modality increasingly being used for thermal treatment of cancer in various organs. During ablation procedures, treatment planning is typically restricted to vendor specifications of expected ablation zone volumes based on experiments in unperfused ex vivo tissues, presuming parallel insertion of antennas. However, parallel antenna implants are not always clinically possible due to the restricted control of flexible antennas and presence of intervening organs. This paper aims to quantify the effect of non-parallel antenna implants on the ablation volume. 3D electromagnetic-bioheat transfer models were implemented to analyze ablation zone profiles created by dual antenna arrays. Parallel and non-parallel implants spaced 10-25 mm with antenna tips deviated to create converging or diverging configurations were analyzed. Volumetric Dice Similarity Coefficients (DSC) were calculated to compare ablation zone volumes for parallel and non-parallel configuration. Antenna tip displacements of 3 mm/antenna yielded an average DSC of 0.78. Tip displacements of 5 mm/antenna yielded a DSC of 0.78 and 0.64 for 15 mm and 20 mm antenna spacing, respectively. For ablation with dipole antennas as the frequency of operation decreases from 2.45 GHz to 915 MHz the similarity between the ablation zones for parallel and angled cases increased significantly. In conclusion, ablation volumes with non-parallel antenna implants may differ significantly from the parallel configuration. Patient-specific treatment planning tools may provide more accurate predictions of 3D-ablation volumes based on imaging data of actual implanted antenna configurations. Methods to compare ablation zone volumes incorporating uncertainty in antenna positions and experimental results to validate the numerical modelling are also presented.
To overcome the limitations of currently available clinical hyperthermia systems which are based on rigid waveguide antennas, a wearable microwave hyperthermia system is presented. A light wearable system can improve patient comfort and be located in close proximity to the breast, thereby enhancing energy deposition and reducing power requirements. The objective of this work was to design and assess the feasibility of a conformal patch antenna element of an array system to be integrated into a wearable hyperthermia bra. The feasibility of implementing antennas with silver printed ink technology on flexible substrates was evaluated. A coupled electromagnetic-bioheat transfer solver and a hemispheric heterogeneous numerical breast phantom were used to design and optimize a 915 MHz patch antenna. The optimization goals were device miniaturization, operating bandwidth, enhanced energy deposition pattern in targets, and reduced Efield back radiation. The antenna performance was evaluated for devices incorporating a hemispheric conformal groundplane and a rectangular groundplane configuration. Simulated results indicated a stable -10 dB return loss bandwidth of 88 MHz for both the conformal and rectangular groundplane configurations. Considering applied power levels restricted to 15 W, treatment volumes (T>410C) and depth from the skin surface were 11.32 cm3 and 27.94 mm, respectively, for the conformal groundplane configuration, and 2.79 cm3 and 19.72 mm, respectively, for the rectangular groundplane configuration. E-field back-radiation reduced by 85.06% for the conformal groundplane compared to the rectangular groundplane configuration. A prototype antenna with rectangular groundplane was fabricatd and experimentally evaluated. The groundplane was created by printing silver ink (Metalon JS-B25P) on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film surface. Experiments revealed stable antenna performance for power levels up to 15.3 W. In conclusion, the proposed patch antenna with conformal groundplane and prined ink technology shows promising performance to be integrated in a clinical array system.
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