title: Treatment planning in microwave thermal ablation: clinical gaps and recent research advances.
abstract: Microwave thermal ablation (MTA) is a minimally invasive therapeutic technique aimed at destroying pathologic tissues through a very high temperature increase induced by the absorption of an electromagnetic field at microwave (MW) frequencies. Open problems, which are delaying MTA applications in clinical practice, are mainly linked to the extremely high temperatures, up to 120 °C, reached by the tissue close to the antenna applicator, as well as to the ability of foreseeing and controlling the shape and dimension of the thermally ablated area. Recent research was devoted to the characterisation of dielectric, thermal and physical properties of tissue looking at their changes with the increasing temperature, looking for possible developments of reliable, automatic and personalised treatment planning. In this paper, a review of the recently obtained results as well as new unpublished data will be presented and discussed.
authors.affiliation: a Division of Health Protection Technologies , Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) , Rome , Italy.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lopresto
authors.affiliation: a Division of Health Protection Technologies , Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) , Rome , Italy.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pinto
authors.affiliation: b Department of Information Engineering, Electronics and Telecommunications , Sapienza University of Rome , Rome , Italy.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Farina
authors.affiliation: b Department of Information Engineering, Electronics and Telecommunications , Sapienza University of Rome , Rome , Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cavagnaro
mesh_terms: D055011:Ablation Techniques; D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D006979:Hyperthermia, Induced; D008872:Microwaves / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008954:Models, Biological; D016343:Monitoring, Intraoperative; D010347:Patient Care Planning
keywords: Thermal ablation; microwave; modelling