Microwave hyperthermia with X band flexible hyperthermia applicator for bone and joint cancer treatment

Abstract

The microwave hyperthermia technique is proposed for bone and joint cancer with a flexible hyperthermia applicator operating in the X-band. The proposed approach consists of two steps. First, EM focus analysis is performed to optimize the phase value of antenna array elements’ excitation properties to concentrate the electromagnetic power at the tumor position while keeping the electromagnetic power level in healthy tissues at minimum values. Second, thermal analysis is performed by optimizing the amplitude value of the antenna elements’ excitation properties to achieve the required temperature at the tumor location. The proposed treatment technique is tested in a realistic simulation environment. The results obtained for different bone and joint models using the optimization technique for the excitation properties confirm the applicability of the proposed treatment method. In addition, the wideband frequency simulations show that frequencies around 10.4 GHz are the optimum values for treating bone and joint cancer.