New Possible Application Area for Magnetocaloric Materials: Hyperthermia Method

The conventional Hyperthermia Method used for cancer treatment today heats the whole body or specific parts of it. This way of implementing the Hyperthermia Method presents hazards, like destroying healthy cells. Our work presents a new approach for the Hyperthermia method, making use of the magnetocaloric effect to overcome the problems related to the heating of the actual bodily tissue. In order to bring practical use of this new approach, the relevant characteristics of magnetocaloric materials for the Hyperthermia method have been determined. These characteristics are the magnetic entropy change, the adiabatic temperature change, the Curie temperature, and the Full Width at Half Maximum. Some example materials complying with the required characteristics are obtained from the literature, and listed in our paper. That said, there are additional parameters that are helpful in determining the most appropriate material. We are also reporting possible ways to obtain new magnetocaloric materials for use in the Hyperthermia method.