Thermal detection of a prevascular tumor embedded in breast tissue (Q2351757)

The authors investigate the problem of heat transfer in tumors. The model uses the steady state temperature of the breast at the skin surface to determine whether there is an underlying tumor and if so, verifies whether the tumor is growing or dormant. The mathematical model of prevascular breast tumors in two dimensions based on Pennes' bioheat equation \[ \rho \bar c\frac{{\partial T}}{{\partial t}} = \nabla \left( {K\left| {\nabla T} \right|} \right) + {m_b}{c_b}({T_A} - T) + S, \] where \(\rho\) is the tissue density, \(\bar c\) is the specific heat of the tissue, \(K\) is the thermal conductivity of the tissue, \(m_b\) is the mass from the rate of blood, \(c_b\) is the specific heat of the blood, \(T_A\) is the arterial blood temperature and \(S\) is the metabolic heat generation, is studied. It is supposed that the influence of the member \(m_{b}c_{b}(T_A-T)\) to the evolution of the studied process is small. Therefore, the authors, using the MATLAB finite element package, numerically study the steady state case of the equation \[ \rho \bar c\frac{{\partial T}}{{\partial t}} = \nabla \left( {K\left| {\nabla T} \right|} \right) + S \] at the corresponding boundary conditions. The results of the numerical experiments are discussed. Reviewer's remark. I think it is possible to improve the results if the initial equation is transformed by \[ T(t,x,y) = {m_b}{c_b}({T_A} + {e^{{m_b}{c_{b/\rho \bar c}}}}W(t,x,y)) \] to the form \[ \rho \bar c\frac{{\partial W}}{{\partial t}} = \nabla \left( {K\left| {\nabla W} \right|} \right) + S. \]