Ultrasound Thermotherapy of Breast: Theoretical Design of Transducer and Numerical Simulation of Procedure

摘要

The absorbed ultrasound energy is changed into heat in a dissipative medium. This could be of great advantage in treating tumors in a noninvasive manner, by raising their temperature to cytotoxic levels. In this study we investigated whether using a fixed-focus transducer can destroy breast tumor cells, especially in early stages, in a cost-effective manner and reduce treatment time significantly. An appropriate fixed-focus transducer was designed, and the resultant acoustic pressure was calculated by solving the Rayleigh integral. A two-dimensional breast model was constructed from the magnetic resonance image (MR1) of a cancerous breast. Then, the induced temperature elevation was calculated using the bioheat equation and applying the finite element method (FEM) to the model. Results demonstrate that this transducer can generate a temperature of up to 61℃ in 3 s, which is sufficient to destroy cancer cells, particularly in early stages.