Developing Antitumor Magnetic Hyperthermia: Principles, Materials and Devices

Background and Objective: Methods of local or loco-regional anticancer treatment are of the utmost importance because the therapeutic ‘power’ is applied directly to the disease site. Consequently, general toxicity is minimized. Hyperthermia, that is, a sustained increase of intratumoral temperature up to 45oC, has been investigated as a perspective treatment modality alone and/or in combination with ionizing radiation or chemotherapy. Still, the surrounding tissues can be damaged by the external heat. Method: Development of new materials and devices gave rise to methods of inducing hyperthermia by a high frequency magnetic or electromagnetic field applied to the tumor with exogenous nanosized particles captured within it. The idea of this approach is the release of local heat in the vicinity of the magnetic nanoparticle in a time-varying magnetic field due to transfer of external magnetic field energy into the heat. Therefore, tumor cells are heated whereas the peritumoral non-malignant tissues are spared. Results: This review analyzes recent advances in understanding physical principles that underlie magnetic hyperthermia as well as novel approaches to obtain nanoparticles with optimized physico-chemical, toxicological and tumoricidal properties. Special focus is made on the construction of devices for therapeutic purposes. Conclusion: The review covers recent patents and general literature sources regarding magnetic hyperthermia, the developing approach to treat otherwise intractable malignancies.