Numerical study of nanofluid infusion in deformable tissues for hyperthermia cancer treatments

Abstract

Direct infusion by means of needles is one of the widely used methods for the delivery of nanoparticles in tumors for hyperthermia cancer treatments. During an infusion process, infusion-induced deformation can substantially affect the dispersion of the nanoparticles injected in a biological tissue. In this study, a poroelastic model is developed to investigate fluid transport and flow-induced tissue deformation in a tumor during an infusion process. A surface tracking technique is employed to predict the shape of nanofluid spreading after injection. The model is then used to simulate the formation of backflow and the change of tissue porosity due to the deformation. Specifically, we quantify the influence of the backflow on the spreading shape of the nanofluid and its dependence on injection parameters such as infusion rates, needle diameters, and tumor elastic properties. It is found that backflow is an important factor causing an irregular distribution of the nanofluid injected in a tumor. A higher infusion rate, larger needle diameter, and lower elastic modulus yield a longer backflow length and cause a more irregular spreading shape of the nanofluid. The infusion-induced tissue deformation also leads to a pore swelling and an increase of the porosity in the vicinity of the needle tip and the needle outer surface. It is anticipated that the increased pore size may facilitate the particle penetration in a tumor. To achieve a controlled heat generation, the injection parameters should be selected judiciously with the consideration of tumor sizes, tumor properties, and thresholds at which tumors break under the infusion pressure.

Nanofluids revisited

“…Another important field of nanoparticles in medicine is cancer therapy: Nanoparticles are accumulated near malicious cells and then heated, e.g. by magnetic fields to destroy those cells [5,[191][192][193]. It is hoped, that this technique, called magnetic hyperthermia, acts confined to a small area around the tumor only and thus reduces side effects.…”

On the preliminary design of hyperthermia treatments based on infusion and heating of magnetic nanofluids

“…This study surely provides a valuable contribution, despite the fact that model validation was hampered by the uncertainty on the involved parameters. Moreover, the same authors addressed the effect of tissue poroelasticity in [7], while discarding absorption mechanisms and accounting for realistic geometries of the infusion setup. In particular, they described the fluid distribution near the infusion needle tip, including back-flow effects in good agreement with experimental observations.…”

“…Their exploitation in the medical field is being also investigated, specifically for innovative approaches based on NPs transport such as drug delivery, cancer treatment and imaging [4]. Magnetic nanofluids, in particular, are suspensions of magnetoresponsive NPs that are being increasingly considered also for tumor therapy, namely for NPs-mediated hyperthermia treatments [4,6,7].…”

Electrothermal transport of nanofluids via peristaltic pumping in a finite micro-channel: Effects of Joule heating and Helmholtz-Smoluchowski velocity

“…Nanofluids are synthesized by suspending nanoparticles which may be metallic/non-metallic and are generically 1-100 nanometers in dimension, in base fluids and have been deployed in an extensive range of technologies many of which have been reviewed lucidly by Taylor et al [2]. These include lubrication systems where heat can be dissipated more effectively with nanofluids [3], heat exchangers in solar power plants [4], anti-bacterial agents in biotechnological sterlization [5], nanobioconvection microbial fuel cells (MFCs) using combined silver nanoparticles and gyrotactic micro-organisms [6], hyperthermia medications [7] and nano-coated drug delivery systems [8]. Although for the first decade most research in nanofluids was focused on laboratory and property-based experimentation, in recent years mathematical modelling has emerged as an important new area.…”