title: Toward carbon-nanotube-based theranostic agents for microwave detection and treatment of breast cancer: enhanced dielectric and heating response of tissue-mimicking materials.
abstract: The experimental results reported in this paper suggest that single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have the potential to enhance dielectric contrast between malignant and normal tissue for microwave detection of breast cancer and facilitate selective heating of malignant tissue for microwave hyperthermia treatment of breast cancer. In this study, we constructed tissue-mimicking materials with varying concentrations of SWCNTs and characterized their dielectric properties and heating response. At SWCNT concentrations of less than 0.5% by weight, we observed significant increases in the relative permittivity and effective conductivity. In microwave heating experiments, we observed significantly greater temperature increases in mixtures containing SWCNTs. These temperature increases scaled linearly with the effective conductivity of the mixtures. This work is a first step towards the development of functionalized, tumor-targeting SWCNTs as theranostic (integrated therapeutic and diagnostic) agents for microwave breast cancer detection and treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA. amashal@wisc.edu
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mashal
authors.forename: Balaji
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sitharaman
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Pramod K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Avti
authors.forename: Alan V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Sahakian
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Booske
authors.forename: Susan C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Hagness
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D003287:Contrast Media / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008422:Materials Testing; D008872:Microwaves; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D013057:Spectrum Analysis; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon