A robot-controlled microwave antenna system for uniform hyperthermia treatment of superficial tumours with arbitrary shape

Abstract

A system for microwave hyperthermia by scanning an antenna 'footprint' over a disease site is demonstrated. A computer-controlled robot arm scans a 2.45 GHz helical antenna and controls the absorbed power distribution. The 'ideal' power distribution required to achieve steady-state temperature uniformity over a given region has been calculated and a corresponding antenna trajectory programmed to approximate this pattern. Computer models, based on the solution of the bio-heat equation, have been implemented to allow various system parameters, such as antenna beam size, scan path and velocity profile, to be optimized. Experiments on a homogeneous muscle-equivalent phantom have shown that the scanning antenna system produces uniform temperature distributions over large areas of arbitrary shape. The addition of a thermal control system, based on temperature signal feedback, would enable 'real-time' modification of the power distribution and allow inhomogeneous and perfused tissue structures to be heated more uniformly.