By the year 2030, it is predicted by World Health Organization that the cancer is going to be the most common cause of death. Most of these cancer deaths are expected to occur in the under-developed countries. Hyperthermia is a cancer treatment method where a local area is subjected to relatively high temperatures in order to kill cancer cells. In general, no harm is given to the healthy tissues. By damaging cancer cells in the local area, hyperthermia treatment may help shrinking the tumors. However, hyperthermia treatment is not a frequent method and more clinical trials are required for practical results. Hyperthermia method is generally accompanied with the traditional cancer treatments of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. When a combination of traditional cancer treatments together with hyperthermia is applied, a noticable reduction in tumor sizes has been observed in a number of researches. Ferrimagnetic iron oxides like magnetite, Fe3O4, offer some satisfactory solutions for magnetic hyperthermia treatments. Magnetite is embedded inside a biocompatible glass or ceramic matrix to utilize its heat generation by applying a magnetic field. This heat generation is a response of the ferrimagnetic glass-ceramic embedded into the tumor area to the alternating magnetic fields as a result of hysteresis loss. Typically, in the local tumor area during the magnetic hyperthermia treatment, the temperature is kept around 41-45C to selectively kill the cancerous tissues. In the present work, glass-ceramic systems containing Fe3O4 phase and their role in the hyperthermia treatment of tumors have been investigated.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Hyperthermia, Tumors, Biomedical, Magnetic induction.
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