Determination of power deposition patterns for localized hyperthermia: a transient analysis

A technique for calculating the power deposition patterns required to maintain a uniform temperature throughout a tumour by application of the steady-state bioheat transfer equation was reported previously. In this paper the previous analysis is extended to define the power deposition patterns that are required to uniformly raise (and maintain) the temperature throughout the tumour to hyperthermic levels. The power deposition patterns are derived from the time-dependent bioheat transfer equation, and analytical results are developed for infinite half-space and spherical tumour models. A three-dimensional numerical method is presented which allows calculation of time-dependent power deposition patterns for arbitrarily shaped tumours. This method is applied to an example of a spherical tumour.