Nowadays, magnetic hyperthermia constitutes a complementary approach to
cancer treatment. The use of magnetic particles as heating mediators, proposed
in the 1950s, provides a novel strategy for improving tumor treatment and,
consequently, patient quality of life. This review reports a broad overview
about several aspects of magnetic hyperthermia addressing new perspectives and
the progress on relevant features such as the ad hoc preparation of magnetic
nanoparticles, physical modeling of magnetic heating, methods to determine the
heat dissipation power of magnetic colloids including the development of
experimental apparatus and the influence of biological matrices on the heating
efficiency.Comment: 104 pages, 28 figures. Manuscript accepted for publication in Applied
Physics Review