Effect of Functional Magnetic Particles on Radiofrequency Capacitive Heating

Magnetic particles (magnetite) were used to make radio frequency (RF) capacitive hyperthermia effective to a specific site. In an agar phantom experiment, a magnetite‐containing agar piece was buried in a large agar phantom and heated by an 8 MHz‐RF capacitive heating device. The magnetite‐containing agar piece was heated more than the magnetite‐free agar phantom, and the specific adsorption rate in the phantom was increased 1.5 times by the magnetite particles. The temperature distribution in the large agar phantom showed that the highest temperature was obtained at the center of the magnetite‐containing piece. The rate of temperature increase was approximately proportional to the magnetite concentration to the power 0.8. This method was applied to an in vivo experiment using a pig. Magnetite was prepared as a colloidal material dispersed in a carboxymethylcellulose solution (CMC‐Mag) and intramuscularly injected in the pig femur. As a result of 8 MHz‐RF heating, the temperature at the CMC‐Mag‐injected point increased to over 43°C after 7 min, while the temperature at a point without magnetite was under 40°C at the same time. The specific adsorption rate in the magnetite‐containing tissue was twice that of the magnetite‐ free tissue. In addition, the time required to reach a temperature of over 43°C was only 7 min, while it was over 15 min in the case without the CMC‐Mag.