An infusion rate of 3 µL/min was identified to result in the most repeatable nanoparticle distribution in PC3 tumours. Linear relationships have been obtained to first convert micro-CT greyscale values to HU values, then to local nanoparticle concentrations, and finally to nanoparticle-induced q(MNH) values. The total energy deposition rate in tumours was calculated and the observed similarity in total energy deposition rates in all three infusion rate groups suggests improvement in minimising nanoparticle leakage from the tumours. The results of this study demonstrate that micro-CT generated q(MNH) distribution and tumour physical models improve predicting capability of heat transfer simulation for designing reliable treatment protocols using magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia.

The simulated temperature field in the generated tumor geometry and volumetric heat generation rate distribution are reasonable and correlates well with the amount of the total thermal energy deposited into the tumors. The time needed for complete thermal damage is determined to be approximately 12min or 25min if one uses the Arrhenius integral Ω equal to 1 or 4 as the damage threshold, when the infusion rate is 3μL/min. The heating time increases 26% or 91% in the higher infusion rate groups of 4 or 5μL/min, respectively. Collateral thermal damage to the surrounding tissue is also assessed. Although the two larger infusion rate groups can still cause thermal damage to the entire tumor, the collateral thermal damage would have exceeded the design criterion of 5%, while the assessment criterion is acceptable only in the infusion rate group of 3μL/min. Based on the results of this study, we identify an injection strategy and heating protocols to be implemented in future animal experiments to evaluate treatment efficacy for model validation.

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A linear relationship was obtained to relate individual pixel index numbers in the microCT images to the SAR values under a specific magnetic field. The generated prototype of the tumour geometry based on only 30 slices of microCT images resembled the original tumour shape and size. The tumour geometry and the simplified SAR data set were successfully accepted by the COMSOL software for heat transfer simulation. Up to 20 °C temperature elevations from its baseline temperature were found inside the tumours, implying possible thermal damage to the tumour during magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia.

Accurate simulation of temperature distribution in tumors induced by gold nanorods during laser photothermal therapy relies on precise measurements of thermal, optical, and physiological properties of the tumor with or without nanorods present. In this study, a computational Monte Carlo simulation algorithm is developed to simulate photon propagation in a spherical tumor to calculate laser energy absorption in the tumor and examine the effects of the absorption (μ(a)) and scattering (μ(s)) coefficients of tumors on the generated heating pattern in the tumor. The laser-generated energy deposition distribution is then incorporated into a 3D finite-element model of prostatic tumors embedded in a mouse body to simulate temperature elevations during laser photothermal therapy using gold nanorods. The simulated temperature elevations are compared with measured temperatures in PC3 prostatic tumors in our previous in vivo experimental studies to extract the optical properties of PC3 tumors containing different concentrations of gold nanorods. It has been shown that the total laser energy deposited in the tumor is dominated by μ(a), while both μ(a) and μ(s) shift the distribution of the energy deposition in the tumor. Three sets of μ(a) and μ(s) are extracted, representing the corresponding optical properties of PC3 tumors containing different concentrations of nanorods to laser irradiance at 808 nm wavelength. With the injection of 0.1 cc of a 250 optical density (OD) nanorod solution, the total laser energy absorption rate is increased by 30% from the case of injecting 0.1 cc of a 50 OD nanorod solution, and by 125% from the control case without nanorod injection. Based on the simulated temperature elevations in the tumor, it is likely that after heating for 15 min, permanent thermal damage occurs in the tumor injected with the 250 OD nanorod solution, while thermal damage to the control tumor and the one injected with the 50 OD nanorod solution may be incomplete.