In vitro practical evaluations on heating characteristics of thin microwave antenna in maximum temperature control mode

Abstract

Microwave thermal therapy is one of the modalities for cancer treatment. There are several schemes of microwave heating. The authors have been studying thin Coaxial Quarter Conductor Antennas (CQCA) for intracavitary microwave heating aiming at the treatment of hepatic cancer. Experimental protocol was composed by a radiation microwave power system and a thermometry system. We apply the microwave power during experiments was 10W, 20W, 30W, 40W, 50W, 60W, 70W and 80W which we set the maximum temperature control at 90°C for all case Experiment, Thermal sensors were placed next to the antenna at 1mm, a large number of experiments on porcine liver are carried out, the temperature distribution within the porcine liver are measured, for cases of different injected microwave power. Experiment for finding a possibility of the treatment. In this study, in order to consider practical situations of the treatment, heating characteristics of the antenna inserted into sample tissue. Moreover, the relation between coagulation size of the tissue, the radiation power from the antenna and the volume of lesion which the hepatic cancer was successful hepatic ablation. From these investigations, some useful results for practical treatments were found.