EFFECT OF MICROWAVE HYPERTHERMIA ON TUMOR TREATMENT

RASHA SAID SHAMS ELDINE*#, M.M. MOHAMED**, M.B. TAYEL***, H. ALI NOUR***

*Medical Biophysics Department, Medical Research Institute, Alexandria University
**Faculty of Science, Pharos University
***Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University

Cancer treatment is one of main challenges that face the scientific centers all over the world. The cancer incidence percentage increases year after year. Hyperthermia elevated tissue temperature by radio frequency (RF) and microwave fields have beneficial effects in cancer therapy. Particularly, in noninvasive electromagnetic (EM) hyperthermia, one attempts to focus the energy in the tumor region, while avoiding damage to the surrounding healthy tissue. The present work is concentrated on the use of horn antenna as a noninvasive hyperthermia applicator. Animals with Ehrlich tumor were divided into two main groups (intramuscularly and subcutaneous) and has been exposed using this horn antenna at microwave of 2450 MHz and 40 W or 50 W for 8 min. Tumor growth was examined regularly every 2 days, the measurements of the dielectric properties of the solid tumor were done after killing the animals. The real permittivity for both the exposed groups either intramuscular or subcutaneous decreased with increasing the applied frequency while the conductivity increased with increasing the applied frequency. The effect of the microwave therapy increases with increasing of its energy for both the exposed groups in comparison to the non-exposed group.

Corresponding author’s e-mail: rasha_shams17@yahoo.com

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