Modeling the Effect of Heat Distribution in Photothermal Therapy by Using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)

Abstract

Cancer is a mortal disorder around the world, and according to the World Health Organization (WHO), it is a leading cause of death, causing nearly 10 million deaths in 2020. It is commonly treated by chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery. However, the undesirable effects of these treatments encouraged clinicians to find better therapies, such as photothermal therapy (PTT). PTT has been commonly used for being less harmful to the healthy tissues near the cancer cells. However, it is necessary to know that the heat distribution is suitable and that the surrounding tissue is not overheated. This work uses Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to model the cancer cell and the healthy tissue around it as a 3D model using ICEM CFD, a pre-processing program of Ansys Fluent 18.2. It is found that wall shear stress is high, up to 4600 Pa in the top parts of the cell, and lower in others. The highest pressure on the cancer cell goes up to 36000 Pa in the lower parts of the cell. The results of this work could guide researchers in optimizing the photothermal therapy of cancer cells, and the modeling approach could be applied to investigate alternative therapies.