Development of non-contact three-dimensional resonator applicator with non-invasive temperature measurement function

Cancer affects the lives of many people across the world. Indeed, it is the second leading cause of death globally. There are a number of existing cancer treatments but they have limitations. For example, many treatments destroy diseased tissue but also damage healthy tissue in the process. Professor Kazuo Kato, Department of Mechanical Engineering Informatics, School of Science and Technology, Meiji University, Japan, is working to discover how cancer cells can be killed without harming the patient. This work centres on the principles that underlie hyperthermia, which is a cancer treatment that can treat cancer without damaging the human body. It does this by exposing body tissue to high temperatures and cancer cells are more sensitive to heat than normal cells. Kato and the team are developing a hyperthermia system that is able to heat cells in various tissues while using ultrasound images to non-invasively measure the 3D temperature distribution inside the human body. Using this technique, cancerous tissues can be heated and treated non invasively. An additional benefit of the novel ultrasound imaging system and cavity resonator that the researchers are developing is that it is smaller and less expensive than existing treatments.