A Numerical Analysis of the Relation between Electromagnetic and Thermal Dose Parameters in Quality Assurance Procedures for Superficial Hyperthermia

Oncological radiative hyperthermia (HT) is a therapy aimed at heating the tumour using electromagnetic (EM) fields. The synergic application of HT and radio/chemotherapy improves the outcome of these cancer therapies. Superficial HT is applied to tumours up to 3-4 cm depth. Typical working frequencies are 434 MHz and 915 MHz. Quality assurance (QA) protocols from the European Society for Hyperthermic Oncology (ESHO) recommend using multilayer tissue-equivalent phantoms to validate HT devices. The current guidelines propose the evaluation of thermal dose parameters for QA procedures. This work presents a numerical study simulating the application of a commercial superficial HT antenna on the multilayer phantom, investigating the relation between electromagnetic and thermal dose parameters. The results aim to support and refine QA procedures for superficial hyperthermia treatments, in order to consider the feasibility of both EM and thermal measurements for the validation of HT devices.