A Numerical Study of the RF Hyperthermia Treatment of Brain Tumors Using Novel SPIO-Micelles

Brain tumors are deep-seated neoplasms that are difficult to treat with conventional strategies, so new solutions are needed. Magnetic hyperthermia is a treatment strategy against brain tumors. However, administering magnetic nanoparticles to target brain tumors and perform a radiofrequency hyperthermia treatment is not a trivial task. Recently, micelles that can overcome blood-brain barrier have been proposed as cargo to concentrate superparamagnetic nanoparticles in the target tumor volume. In this work the synthesis and preliminary characterization of novel superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) micelles for brain tumor hyperthermia is presented. A numerical multiphysics model, that couples the mass transfer problem with the radiofrequency heating equations, is proposed to study what key SPIO-micelles magnetic features and the extrinsic treatment parameters are needed to plan a successful treatment. The computational analysis is performed using patient-specific geometries derived from magnetic resonance images and considering a parametrized tumor geometry. We successfully identified the SPIO-micelles concentration and the working conditions needed to perform the hyperthermia treatment on the brain tumor.