Living Systems Institute, University of Exeter, EX4 4PU, UK.
Physics and Astronomy, University of Exeter, EX4 4PU, UK.
Biomolecules. 2019 Aug 5;9(8):343. doi: 10.3390/biom9080343.
Photothermal therapy using nanoparticles is a promising new approach for the treatment of cancer. The principle is to utilise plasmonic nanoparticle light interaction for efficient heat conversion. However, there are many hurdles to overcome before it can be accepted in clinical practice. One issue is a current poor characterization of the thermal dose that is distributed over the tumour region and the surrounding normal tissue. Here, we use Monte Carlo simulations of photon radiative transfer through tissue and subsequent heat diffusion calculations, to model the spatial thermal dose in a skin cancer model. We validate our heat rise simulations against experimental data from the literature and estimate the concentration of nanorods in the tumor that are associated with the heat rise. We use the cumulative equivalent minutes at 43 °C (CEM43) metric to analyse the percentage cell kill across the tumour and the surrounding normal tissue. Overall, we show that computer simulations of photothermal therapy are an invaluable tool to fully characterize thermal dose within tumour and normal tissue.
利用纳米颗粒的光热疗法是一种有前途的癌症治疗新方法。其原理是利用等离子体纳米颗粒的光相互作用实现高效的热转换。然而，在临床实践中应用之前，还有许多障碍需要克服。其中一个问题是目前对肿瘤区域和周围正常组织分布的热剂量的表征很差。在这里，我们使用通过组织的光子辐射传输的蒙特卡罗模拟和随后的热扩散计算，来模拟皮肤癌模型中的空间热剂量。我们根据文献中的实验数据验证了我们的升温模拟，并估计了与升温相关的肿瘤中纳米棒的浓度。我们使用 43°C 的累积等效分钟 (CEM43) 指标来分析肿瘤和周围正常组织的细胞杀伤百分比。总的来说，我们表明，光热治疗的计算机模拟是充分表征肿瘤和正常组织内热剂量的宝贵工具。
