Design of an ultrasonic therapy system for breast cancer treatment

This paper describes the design of a novel ultrasonic therapy system dedicated to the breast cancer treatment and the theoretical investigation of the heating characteristics of the system. The applicator is a cylinder comprised of a stack of rings. Each ring has up to 48 transducers mounted on the inside of the ring and directed towards the centre. The transducers operate in one of two frequency bands (1·8-2·8 MHz and 4·3-4·8 MHz), arranged alternately in each ring. During treatment the patient is positioned in prone position, with the breast immersed in water and surrounded by this array. This design was modelled and optimized by 3-D simulations for a variety of treatment conditions. The simulated results demonstrate that the system has an excellent capability to achieve and maintain a temperature distribution (41·5-44°C) in a quadrant to a whole breast. Initial experiments using a single ring of transducers has been performed to verify the power deposition calculation.