Estimation of the effect of blood vessels on magnetic hyperthermia therapy of liver tumors using patient-specific anatomical models

This study presents a computational investigation of magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia (MNPH) in a patient-specific liver tumor model to quantify the impact of adjacent blood vessels on therapeutic efficacy. The anatomical geometry, reconstructed from Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine, incorporates portal and hepatic veins as well as surrounding healthy tissue. The spatial distribution of magnetic nanoparticles is modeled using a Darcy-based mass transport formulation. Heat transfer is simulated using a coupled Pennes bioheat and convection–diffusion model under intratumoral nanoparticle injection. Results show that as the tumor moves closer to the portal vein, with the normalized distance ratio (d/R) decreasing from 2.6 to 1, convective heat loss increases by up to 27.3%, and the heterogeneity index rises by 7%, indicating greater thermal non-uniformity. The therapeutic tumor volume exceeding 43 °C decreases by approximately 25% at this proximity. An exponential correlation is proposed to characterize this reduction in thermal coverage, providing a predictive metric for proximity-driven heat loss. These findings underscore the importance of vascular proximity in MNPH planning and highlight the utility of physics-based modeling in optimizing treatment strategies.