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Hyperthermia And Chemotherapy Essay

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The use of electromagnetic waves in therapeutic applications has existed for many decades. Nowadays, the therapies that use non-ionising radiation and are available for clinical use lie on the thermal effects of low frequency electromagnetic waves, from radio frequencies to optical frequencies. Hyperthermia and thermal ablation are currently used to treat various types of cancers, either by killing the cancerous cells or by locally and selectively enhancing the efficiency of chemotherapeutic drugs and radiation treatment. Hyperthermia treatment elevates the tissue temperature between 40 °C and 45 °C, for altering the functional and structural properties of enzymatic proteins that make tumour more sensitive to radiation and chemotherapy. Thermal …show more content…

However, the complexity and heterogeneity of human brain structure and mechanisms, such as nerve stimulation, blood circulation and homeostasis, complicates the effort for predicting the temperature rise and distribution generated by one or multiple electromagnetic sources inside the brain tissue. Nevertheless, it is of high importance to monitor and control the temperature changes during these procedures in order to minimise the severe side-effects of elevated brain temperatures for long durations. To this end, non-invasive techniques that exhibit enhanced sensitivity and specificity thermometric are required for spatial and real-time temperature monitoring.
Nanotechnology offers enhanced localisation of treatment delivery to brain diseased sites, including hyperthermia, thermal ablation, as well as chemotherapeutic drug delivery and gene therapy. The procedure may also be monitored with various ionising or non-ionising imaging modalities. Theranostics is an emerging medical field that uses nanoparticles for combining diagnosis and treatment on a single nanoscale platform.
In this paragraph, multimodal systems for thermal electromagnetic treatments and real-time temperature monitoring and/or visualisation of the anatomical area of interest are presented emphasising microwave technology. Additionally, novel approaches for combined therapy and diagnosis using non-ionising radiation in a nanoscale level are presented in the last

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