Abstract
Bones are a frequent site of metastases that cause intolerable cancer-related pain in 90% of patients, making their quality of life poor. In this scenario, being able to treat bone oncology patients by means of minimally invasive techniques can be crucial to avoid surgery-related risks and decrease hospitalization times. The use of microwave ablation (MWA) is gaining broad clinical acceptance to treat bone tumors. It is worth investigating temperature variations in bone tissue undergoing MWA because the clinical outcomes can be inferred from this parameter. Several feasibility studies have been performed, but an experimental analysis of the temperature trends reached into the bone during the MWA has not yet been assessed. In this work, a multi-point temperature study along the bone structure during such treatment is presented. The study has been carried out on ex vivo bovine femur and tibia, subjected to MWA. An overall of 40 measurement points covering a large sensing area was obtained for each configuration. Temperature monitoring was performed by using 40 fiber Bragg grating (FBGs) sensors (four arrays each housing 10 FBGs), inserted into the bones at specific distances to the microwave antenna. As result, the ability of this experimental multi-point monitoring approach in tracking temperature variations within bone tissue during MWA treatments was shown. This study lays the foundations for the design of a novel approach to study the effects of MWA on bone tumors. As consequence, the MWA treatment settings could be optimized in order to maximize the treatment effects of such a promising clinical application, but also customized for the specific tumor and patient.
Highlights
During the last decades, the increase of population life expectancy combined with unhealthy lifestyles and poor food habits led to a greater occurrence of tumors cases, especially in developed countries [1]
Microwave ablation (MWA), laser ablation (LA), and radiofrequency ablation (RFA) are MITs that induce a necrosis of the target tissue cells through hyperthermia
microwave ablation (MWA) have been reported in literature [15,16]. In both these two studies, the experiments employed a thermocouple, so a single-point temperature measurement was performed. In this framework it is worth investigating a three-dimensional temperature distribution to gain a deeper knowledge of the phenomenon, multi-point temperature measurements are recommended
Summary
The increase of population life expectancy combined with unhealthy lifestyles and poor food habits led to a greater occurrence of tumors cases, especially in developed countries [1]. Patients who need cancer treatments are aged or have complicated medical histories caused by pre-existing conditions In this scenario, treating cancer patients using minimally invasive techniques (MITs) to minimize surgery-related risks and decrease hospitalization times is highly preferable, since 20% of the patients undergoing radiotherapy, the gold standard in this kind of treatment, are unresponsive in terms of pain control. In this respect, MITs are gaining momentum and wide clinical acceptance for the treatment of several kinds of tumors (i.e., liver, lung, kidney and pancreas) located in different body districts [2].
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