Thermal Effect of Gold Nanorods in Implanted Prostatic Tumors during Laser Photothermal Therapy

摘要

In recent years, nanotechnologies have emerged as promising therapies due to their ability to deliver adequate thermal dosage to irregular and/or deep-seated tumors. Gold nanorods can be tuned to a specific laser wavelength and serve as strong laser energy absorbers. Due to the powerful optical absorption, the laser energy is concentrated in an area congregating by nanorods, and then the energy absorbed can be transferred to the surrounding tumor tissue by heat conduction.1"4 Currently, there are wide variation ranges of treatment protocols using photothermal therapy. A systematic approach is lacking to analyze temperature elevation history in tumors during heating to design an optimized combination of laser parameters to maximize thermal damage to tumors.