Investigation of Temperature Characteristics of Liver Phantoms for Hyperthermia

Abstract

　Hyperthermia is used in combination with medication in the treatment of cancer. Hyperthermia has less effect on the human body than other therapies, and further improvement is required. When developing hyperthermia, it is necessary to demonstrate the effects of hyperthermia on the human body. However, since experiments using the human body or animals are often avoided due to ethical issues, the use of a phantom that simulates the electrical properties (relative permittivity and conductivity) of the human body is useful as a solution. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a phantom equivalent to a heated liver at 8 MHz, which is currently widely used in hyperthermia. The electrical properties were simulated within 10% error at each temperature.