Development of a Clinical Head and Neck Hyperthermia Applicator

Treatment of advanced tumours in the head and neck (H&N) remains complex and the toxicity related to the currently standard treatment modalities is a major issue. For many tumour sites, the addition of hyperthermia (HT) to radiotherapy has been shown to result in improved local control rates and/or better overall survival rates. HT has a high potential to improve cancer treatment results in H&N patients as well without adding toxicity. However, an appropriate applicator that can heat both superficially and deeply located target sites in the H&N region is currently not available. This thesis describes the items that needed to be addressed to design and build such an applicator. Extensive theoretical parameters studies were performed 1) to show the feasibility of deep heating in the H&N using radiofrequency (RF) waves and 2) to guide the design of the applicator. These parameter studies were performed using electromagnetic (EM) simulation programs. The predictions were then verified by measurements and with their results we designed and build a clinical prototype (the HYPERcollar applicator). We performed treatment planning for several patients to establish the specific absorption rate (SAR) patterns that are achievable with this applicator. In a heating session of the first patient of an ongoing clinical feasibility study we showed the possibility of deep heating using the HYPERcollar applicator.

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