Abstract
Microwave breast hyperthermia is a class of cancer treatment, where breast temperature is elevated by a focused electromagnetic (EM) radiation to impair cancer cells. While the current mainstream in microwave breast hyperthermia is centered on bulky and rigid systems, wearable antennas would offer considerable benefits such as superior conformity to individual patient anatomy and better comfort. In this proposition, this paper presents 3D-printed flexible antenna prototypes for wearable breast hyperthermia applications. Since the dielectric properties are expected to dominate the antenna gain but could be influenced by the solid volume percentage, this work first investigates the relationship between the dielectric properties and solid volume percentage of a 3D-printed flexible filament. From this, it is found that with decrease in the solid volume percentage, the dielectric constant decreases following the classic theory of dielectric mixture. Based on this observation, optimal antennas are designed for substrates in different infill levels by running a 3D full-wave EM simulator and fabricated by 3D printing a polyurethane filament. Temperature elevations in a synthetic breast tissue are measured by a thermometer and are ~ 5.5 °C and ~ 3.2 °C at the 5 mm- and 7 mm-deep locations, respectively. The infill percentage makes little difference in the heating efficacy. Based on these findings, this translational study sheds light on the possibility of wearable breast hyperthermia with the 3D-printed flexible and conformal antennas.
Highlights
Treatment of breast cancer is one of the key research topics in health sciences, and as a non-invasive technique, microwave hyperthermia has recently been spotlighted (Anghileri & Robert 2019; Curto et al 2018; Mukai 2016; Pang & Lee 2016)
This observation led to a deduction that the dielectric constant is linearly related to the solid volume percentage and could be well-predicted by the existing formula
Temperature rise (°C) at 5 mm Temperature rise (°C) at 7 mm Conclusions This paper presented the design, fabrication and characterization of a 3D-printed thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) antenna for microwave hyperthermia applications
Summary
Treatment of breast cancer is one of the key research topics in health sciences, and as a non-invasive technique, microwave hyperthermia has recently been spotlighted (Anghileri & Robert 2019; Curto et al 2018; Mukai 2016; Pang & Lee 2016). The current mainstream in microwave hyperthermia research focuses primarily on the bulky and heavy antennas, which would impose considerable discomfort to patients. As a more patient friendly and pervasive option, wearable antennas have recently been proposed for hyperthermia applications, and those include water bolus (Curto et al 2015, 2018; Curto & Prakash 2015) and textile antennas (Mukai 2019; Mukai & Suh 2018, 2019b, 2020). Having flexible and small form factors, these wearable antennas are claimed to offer substantial benefits such as superior conformity to individual patient anatomy and better comfort (Curto et al 2015, 2018; Mukai 2019; Ramasamy et al 2015)
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