Abstract
Microwave and Radio Frequency (RF) hyperthermia is an FDA approved treatment in cancer treatment, usually used as an adjuvant to boost the effects of traditional radiation or chemotherapy. Many devices, including the Mettler Autotherm 300, have been designed to produce the requisite heating to ~ 42 degrees °C in the tumor volume, The Autotherm 300 is used to heat muscular tissues that are infected by cancer disease, the heating therapy (Hyperthermia) proved that cancer cells can be destroyed by heating therapy. The studies prove that Hyperthermia is a friendly treatment and will not cause effects either at the time of application or the future. Using the appropriate heating temperature with chemotherapy can help the blood vessels absorb the therapy and improve the healing. However, according to the National Cancer Institute (https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/types/surgery/hyperthermia-fact-sheet), many challenges remain in the wide-spread use of hyperthermia: uniform heating over the tumor volume is desirable, and also heating time should be reduced. To assist in overcoming these challenges, the goal of this project is to understand how to test and use the Autotherm machine; furthermore, to gauge the heating mechanism changes due to the surrounding environment and, from the knowledge of microwave engineering, to understand how environmental impacts can disturb the heating process. This project is focused on how to optimally use the Autotherm 300 in any environment by understanding the heating mechanism. 20 tests were performed by applying different test media to standardize the heating procedure and detect any abnormalities. Frequently, the measurements proved that the heat absorption can change from one spot to another spot in testing media, which mimicked the human or animal body tissue. This project also includes troubleshooting the Autotherm 300 along with the instruction manual to help in the future needs, because the heat of the drum (head of the machine) can be elevated to the boiling point (93.4 °C = 200.1 °F) and that can cause components exhaustion. In this project the design and testing of the reflector device to boost the effects of the Autotherm 300 were performed. In addition to developing mathematical model to describe performance of reflectors, considerable laboratory measurements are needed to understand the performance of the device. The reflector is a passive addition to the Autotherm device, and is designed from dielectric material with conical shape to help in focusing the heat. One design addition in the future could be the addition of absorber material within the conical volume. The design performed increases heating efficiency, and reduces heating time to reach the requisite hyperthermia temperature of ~ 42 degrees °C.