Understanding mNP hyperthermia for cancer treatment at the cellular scale

The use of magnetic nanoparticles (mNP’s) to induce local hyperthermia has been emerging in recent years as a promising cancer therapy, in both a stand-alone and combination treatment setting. Studies have shown that cancer cells associate with, internalize, and aggregate mNP’s more preferentially than normal cells. Once the mNP’s are delivered inside the cells, a low frequency (30 kHz-300 kHz) alternating electromagnetic field is used to activate the mNP’s. The nanoparticles absorb the applied field and provide localized heat generation at nano-micron scales. It has been shown experimentally that mNP’s exhibit collective behavior when in close proximity. Although most prevailing mNP heating models assume there is no magnetic interaction between particles, our data suggests that magnetic interaction effects due to mNP aggregation are often significant; In the case of multi-crystal core particles, interaction is guaranteed. To understand the physical phenomena responsible for this effect, we modeled electromagnetic coupling between mNP’s in detail. The computational results are validated using data from the literature as well as measurements obtained in our lab. The computational model presented here is based on a method of moments technique and is used to calculate magnetic field distributions on the nanometer scale, both inside and outside the mNP.