ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the topic of “numerical thermal modeling, ’’ a promising tool for obtaining more complete blood flow and temperature field information in local hyperthermia. The evolution of computer thermal modeling in cancer hyperthermia will likely follow the course of serving first, as it does, as an investigative tool for researchers and then should become an increasingly practical clinical device to assist in the monitoring and control of the treatment thermal dose. The chapter provides a brief presentation of the numerical and mathematical considerations used in the thermal modeling of tissue. The tissue systems will thus be those which either exhibit negligible thermal variations out of the x–y plane or which are characterized by symmetrical thermal behavior about the x-y plane. The blood flow and temperature fields in hyperthermic tumors and the tissue surrounding them is the primary rationale for developing cancer hyperthermia models.
