Executive Summary : | Laser-induced photothermal therapy (PTT) is a minimally invasive treatment method that induces local hyperthermia in cancerous cells embedded in biological tissues. The energy of incident photons is converted into heat energy, causing the temperature of the tissue to rise to a predefined threshold value that causes cellular damage. The aim is to maximize the damage to tumoral cells while minimizing thermal damage to surrounding normal tissues. However, due to ethical reasons, researchers are developing more sophisticated bioheat models. To achieve uniform heating throughout the tumor and maintain the desired temperature for a sufficient time with minimal thermal damage, the research proposal aims to develop a novel thermal gradient-assisted self-positioning of laser head for photothermal therapy. This proposal involves numerical works on 2D or 3D regular or irregular shaped tumours and predefined positional experiments of the laser head to develop a thermal gradient-based laser positioning algorithm. The objectives of the proposal include developing a 2-D numerical model, a 3-D numerical model, a predefined path-based laser head setup, and incorporating a thermal gradient-assisted self-positioning mechanism to optimize laser position for uniform heating in regular or irregular shape and size tumors. |