MR Guided RF Hyperthermia for Head and Neck Tumors: Simulation Guided Design of an MR Compatible RF Heating Array

Jurriaan Bakker¹, Maarten Paulides¹, Lorne Hofstetter², Wouter Numan¹, Gyula Kotek¹, Ruben Pellicer¹, Rene Verhaart¹, Paolo Togni¹, Gavin Houston³, Eric Fiveland⁴, Matthew Tarasek², Gerard van Rhoon¹, Desmond Yeo²

Hyperthermia (40-44C for 1h) has shown to be effective for stimulating radiotherapy for the head and neck region, but for deep application a novel applicator was build. MR thermometry has the potential to replace the current invasive fiber-optic temperature measurements and improve treatment results by better feedback. To study MR thermometry, we used simulations to design an MR compatible array applicator. The results show that this array can generate focused heat in cylindrical fat/muscle phantoms while facilitating MR thermometry.