Laser Activated Gold Nanorods for the Photothermal Treatment of Cancer- November 2012
F Rossi, F Ratto, R Pini-Excerpt from COMSOL Conference in Milan, 2012
Photothermal therapy through Gold Nanorods (GNRs) is a new approach for the minimally invasive treatment of cancerous tissue. In order to design the proper settings, it is important to study the thermal effect that are induced close to the nanoparticle (nanoscale model), in the close vicinity and in the cancerous tissue (microscale model). A temperature dependent 2D-model of this particular lightmatter interaction was designed. The expected absorption cross section of the GNRs were used to calculate the optical absorption of the GNR. The bioheat equation then enabled to describe the photothermal effect within the GNRs and the environment. The postprocessing results may be used to evaluate a safe and feasible temperature range and treatment time, in order to destroy the tumor volume… The temperature threshold of thermal damage is presumably below 250°C. [5] The optical behavior of a realistic colloidal suspensions of gold particles was measured by the use of a portable spectrometer (Mod. EPP200 by Stellarnet Inc., USA).
Figure 4. Enlargement of Figure 3, showing the GNR with its biopolymeric shell inside the tumor tissue. Dimensions are in millimeters. Temperature map after 2s irradiation with a 0.5 mW/cm2 diode laser.
Figure 5. Tumor tissue with 8 heat point sources (GNRs clusters). Temperature map after 2s irradiation with a 0.5 mW/cm2 diode laser.
