INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 253-256 FEBRUARY 2016 / 253 © KSPE and Springer 2016 Simulation and Experimental Evaluation of Selective Heating Characteristics of 13.56 MHz Radiofrequency Hyperthermia in Phantom Models M. Tamim Hossain 1 , Bibin Prasad 2 , Ki Sun Park 2 , Hee Joon Lee 2 , You Ho Ha 3 , Seung Ku Lee 3 , and Jung Kyung Kim 1,2,# 1 Department of Integrative Biomedical Science and Engineering, Graduate School, Kookmin University, 77 Jeongneung-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, 02707, South Korea 2 Department Mechanical Engineering, Graduate School, Kookmin University, 77 Jeongneung-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, 02707, South Korea 3 Research and Development, Union Medical Co., 76 Sandan-ro, Uijeongbu-si, Gyeonggi-do, 11781, South Korea # Corresponding Author / E-mail: jkkim@kookmin.ac.kr, TEL: +82-2-910-4747, FAX: +82-2-910-4839 KEYWORDS: Deep heating, Hyperthermia, Selectivity, Phantom, SEMCAD X, Temperature Hyperthermia with a radiofrequency electric field can treat a cancer by delivering energy to heat and kill cancer cells. For a deeply located tumor, focused energy to raise its local temperature selectively is crucial for effective cancer treatment with minimal injury to normal tissues. We evaluated the selective heating characteristics of hyperthermia with 13.56 MHz radiofrequency energy in phantom models by experimental and computational approaches. Phantom materials with different electrical properties such as distilled water, normal saline, egg white and porcine meat were used. Temperature rise in depthwise during heating at 75 W output power was compared. The temperature of the egg white increased selectively in the distilled water but not significantly in the saline. Numerical simulation was performed using SEMCAD X software to calculate the distributions of specific absorption rate (SAR) and temperature, which enabled us to elucidate the selective heating mechanism in those phantom models. Manuscript received: July 19, 2015 / Revised: November 16, 2015 / Accepted: November 17, 2015 1. Introduction Hyperthermia is a common technique for treating tumor cells with the application of heat and it is most effective when used with other cancer treatments such as radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or immunotherapy. The selective elevation of tumor cell temperature, while sparing the normal cells during hyperthermia treatment, is a long- standing issue in oncology. Numerous experimental and numerical studies have been done by researchers to overcome this challenging issue. 1,2 Hyperthermia with radiofrequency (RF) energy relies on the dielectric energy absorption by the cells, which enables it to treat deeply seated tumor cells selectively. Its selectivity of heating depends on the electrical conductivity, dielectric constant, thermophysical properties of tissues, and other metabolic differences between malignant and healthy cells. Malignant cells have higher conductivity due to high ion concentration gradient across the extracellular membrane, high glucose influx, lower membrane potential and a disorganized, loosely connected cell structure in comparison with healthy cells. Based on these characteristics, RF distinguishes between NOMENCLATURE ε = permittivity φ = electric potential E = electric field strength SAR = specific absorption rate σ = electrical conductivity ρ = mass density c = specific heat T = temperature t = time k = thermal conductivity Q r = regional heat delivered by the source (= ρSAR) DOI: 10.1007/s12541-016-0033-9 ISSN 2234-7593 (Print) / ISSN 2005-4602 (Online)