Analytical Modeling of Insulated Dipole Applicators for Interstitial Hyperthermia: a Review

Abstract

Microwave hyperthermia appears as an adjuvant technique to heat relatively small tumors in a minimally invasive way. As this technique is based on interstitial antennas, we propose a review of the physical phenomena involved in the radiation of such antennas in a dispersive medium, using the different analytical modeling developed since the 1970\'s. These modeling have been implemented in a freely available software tool, that will allow antenna designers and medical researchers to perform rapid parameter studies to further understand the role of the several parameters involved; this tool will also help the interpretation of results issued from numerical simulations. Simulation results associated with different antenna geometries are presented and compared to results obtained by several authors.