Laser surgery, or laser-induced thermal therapy, is a minimally invasive alternative or adjuvant to surgical resection in treating tumors embedded in vital organs with poorly defined boundaries. Its use, however, is limited due to the lack of precise control of heating and slow rate of thermal diffusion in the tissue. Nanoparticles, such as nanoshells, can act as intense heat absorbers when they are injected into tumors. These nanoshells can enhance thermal energy deposition into target regions to improve the ability for destroying larger cancerous tissue volumes with lower thermal doses. The goal of this paper is to present an integrated computer model using a so-called nested-block optimization algorithm to simulate laser surgery and provide transient temperature field predictions. In particular, this algorithm aims to capture changes in optical and thermal properties due to nanoshell inclusion and tissue property variation during laser surgery. Numerical results show that this model is able to characterize variation of tissue properties for laser surgical procedures and predict transient temperature fields comparable to those measured by in vivo magnetic resonance temperature imaging techniques. Note that the computational approach presented in the study is quite general and can be applied to other types of nanoparticle inclusions.

中文翻译：

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用于前列腺癌治疗的纳米壳介导的激光手术模拟

激光手术或激光诱导热疗法是一种微创替代或辅助手术切除的方法，用于治疗边界不明确的重要器官中的肿瘤。然而，由于缺乏对加热的精确控制和组织中的热扩散速度缓慢，它的使用受到限制。纳米粒子，如纳米壳，当它们被注射到肿瘤中时，可以起到强烈的吸热作用。这些纳米壳可以增强热能沉积到目标区域，以提高以较低热剂量破坏较大癌组织体积的能力。本文的目标是提出一个集成的计算机模型，使用所谓的嵌套块优化算法来模拟激光手术并提供瞬态温度场预测。特别是，该算法旨在捕捉激光手术过程中由于纳米壳夹杂和组织特性变化而导致的光学和热特性变化。数值结果表明，该模型能够表征激光手术过程中组织特性的变化，并预测与体内磁共振温度成像技术测量的瞬态温度场相当的瞬态温度场。请注意，研究中提出的计算方法非常通用，可以应用于其他类型的纳米颗粒夹杂物。数值结果表明，该模型能够表征激光手术过程中组织特性的变化，并预测与体内磁共振温度成像技术测量的瞬态温度场相当的瞬态温度场。请注意，研究中提出的计算方法非常通用，可以应用于其他类型的纳米颗粒夹杂物。数值结果表明，该模型能够表征激光手术过程中组织特性的变化，并预测与体内磁共振温度成像技术测量的瞬态温度场相当的瞬态温度场。请注意，研究中提出的计算方法非常通用，可以应用于其他类型的纳米颗粒夹杂物。