Predicting the outcome of thermotherapies in cancer treatment requires an accurate characterization of the bioheat transfer processes in soft tissues. Due to the biological and structural complexity of tumor (soft tissue) composition and vasculature, it is often very difficult to obtain reliable tissue properties that is one of the key factors for the accurate treatment outcome prediction. Efficient algorithms employing in vivo thermal measurements to determine heterogeneous thermal tissues properties in conjunction with a detailed sensitivity analysis can produce essential information for model development and optimal control. The goals of this paper are to present a general formulation of the bioheat transfer equation for heterogeneous soft tissues, review models and algorithms developed for cell damage, heat shock proteins, and soft tissues with nanoparticle inclusion, and demonstrate an overall computational strategy for developing a laser treatment framework with the ability to perform real-time robust calibrations and optimal control. This computational strategy can be applied to other thermotherapies using the heat source such as radio frequency or high intensity focused ultrasound.

中文翻译：

---

异质软组织激光治疗的优化与实时控制

预测癌症治疗中热疗法的结果需要准确表征软组织中的生物热传递过程。由于肿瘤（软组织）组成和脉管系统的生物学和结构复杂性，通常很难获得可靠的组织特性，这是准确预测治疗结果的关键因素之一。采用体内热测量来确定异质热组织特性并结合详细的灵敏度分析的高效算法可以为模型开发和优化控制提供必要的信息。本文的目标是提出异质软组织的生物传热方程的一般公式，回顾为细胞损伤、热休克蛋白、和含有纳米颗粒的软组织，并展示了用于开发具有实时稳健校准和最佳控制能力的激光治疗框架的整体计算策略。这种计算策略可以应用于其他使用热源（例如射频或高强度聚焦超声）的热疗。