Fat Tissue Simulation for Hyperthermia Applications: Permittivity Measurements and Preliminary Studies

Hyperthermia is one of the most interesting auxiliary therapies for tumours, due to its potentiality as a non-invasive and targeted treatment. To be effective, it needs a preliminary study phase of the area under treatment and of the device to be used. For this reason, the research around hyperthermia focused on the development of phantoms, substances, or materials able to simulate biological tissues and useful to test the treatment, as well as on calibrating the operative parameters and conditions. One of the most important characteristics that phantoms must simulate is the dielectric permittivity. In this paper, some permittivity measurements, performed using a self-made parallel plate cell connected with an impedance analyser, are reported for the development of phantom for biomedical applications. Different mixtures of 1-butanol and vaseline were prepared and tested with the purpose of realization of a fat tissue-mimicking phantom useful to study liposarcoma treatment.