(119h) Magnetic Nanoparticles as Heating Agents for Magnetic Fluid Hyperthermia (MFH)

Magnetic nanoparticles have potential for many biological applications such as releasing of therapeutic agents, magnetic hyperthermia, drug-delivery systems and magnetic resonance imaging. Magnetic fluid hyperthermia (MFH) is a cancer therapy in which magnetic nanoparticles are delivered to a cancer tumor and an oscillating magnetic field is applied, resulting on in tumor death due to a localized temperature increase. Cancer cells have lower thermal resistance than normal cells; in consequence one can eliminate cancer cells selectively by raising the local temperature from 43-45˚C at the site of tumor. Specific absorption rate (SAR) is defined as the thermal power dissipated per unit of mass of the magnetic material in the presence of an alternating magnetic field. SAR is also known as the specific loss power and could be seen as a quantified heating efficiency of the fluid. In this work we present magnetically induced heating experiments to compare SAR values from oleic acid coated magnetic nanoparticles suspended in organic solvents such as hexane and mineral oil. Results for functionalized nanoparticles suspended in aqueous media will also be presented. SAR experiments demonstrated that magnetite nanoparticles could effectively dissipate energy for MFH.