Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2021
26th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF THERMAL CONTRAST AND THERMAL DAMAGE DURING HYPERTHERMIA IN BREAST CANCER CASES.
Submission Author:
Tarcio Cardoso , MG , Brazil
Co-Authors:
Tarcio Cardoso, Alisson Figueiredo
Presenter: Tarcio Cardoso
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2021.COB2021-1747
Abstract
Breast cancer is the most common type of malignant tumor among women, excluding non-melanoma skin cancers. Mammography is the main test for diagnosing the disease. However, there are still several limitations for mammographic exam, marking it unable to diagnose tumors for a large part of the population. Infrared thermography has been studied as an auxiliary technique for the early detection of diseases. The purpose of this work is to present thermal contrasts on the breast surface from numerical simulations of several cases of breast tumors during hyperthermia treatment using dynamic thermographic images by commercial software COMSOL.The proposed methodology is based on the solution of the bioheat equation for geometric models similar to the breast anatomy. The problem is analogous to the actual performance of dynamic thermography for early detection of breast cancer. This study consists of three stages: stationary, hyperthermia, and thermal recovery, developed according to steady-state and transient bioheat modules. The models will consist of regions of healthy tissue and tumors. The boundary conditions will be preserved from the real breast model, where the skin external surface was exposed to thermal convection, and internal surface was subjected to a constant temperature equal to the body temperature. During hyperthermia treatment, external surface boundary condition had the partial addition of constant heat flux for different times according to the analyzed tumor case. The control of heat input from the use of thermal laser in hyperthermia was determined by thermal damage degree to ensure tissue integrity. Considering that the applied heat flux was constant, the maximum thermal contrast occurs after the end of the hyperthermia. During thermal recovery, no greater thermal contrasts were obtained due to the thermal laser application method. However, it is observed that the analysis of thermal damage during hyperthermia is essential for optimizing the heat flux application and maintaining the integrity of living tissue.
Keywords
breast cancer, Hyperthermia, Thermal damage, thermal contrast, Numerical simulation
