Characterization of Glass Microspheres for Cancer Hyperthermia
Date
2019-05
Authors
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Publisher
New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Inamori School of Engineering.
Abstract
Hyperthermal treatment of cancer has historically been used as an adjuvant to radiotherapy, and while effective it typically was used on near-surface caners. Synthesis and characterization of glass microspheres to be inserted directly to a cancerous growth was conducted where sixteen compositions of glass were synthesized using the melt-quench method. The compositions were based 30SiO2-10P2O5-25GeO2-35CaO (mol%) with an increasing 5-20 mol% substituent (Gd2O3, Ho2O3, Fe2O3, and Mn2O3) in place of CaO. XRD was conducted on each glass and the samples were found to be semi-crystalline with calcium phosphate peaks. Thermal analysis showed a decrease in Tg with increasing substitution content and the Tg ranged from 590-890°C. Ion release studies of 1, 10, 100, and 1000 hr were conducted on the glass powders, and the amount of silica (Si) Ge, and substituent ions were determined. There was a decreasing trend of ion release with increasing gadolinium (Gd) and holmium (Ho) concentrations. The levels of ion release in the iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn) samples may limit their applicability with respect to implantation into the body. The Gd and Ho samples had extremely low ion release rates, even after 1000 hrs incubation in aqueous media. Optical transmission microscopy showed that the glass was successfully converted from particle form into micron sized spheres. The size of the spheres was independent of the Tg or the composition and the overall average diameter of the 16 compositions was 95.6 μm. A corrosion study with pH 4, 7, and 10 solutions, presented very minor traces of degradation on the samples surface post incubation in each pH solution. SEM analysis showed the typical types of defects in the spheres. These defects were total failure to melt, partial melting, surface pores,and air bubbles. There were also atypical scaffold, pocket, and concave defects. Characterization of the glass and microspheres show that there is potential for all the Gd and Ho samples to be used in the body for cancer hyperthermia.
Description
Thesis completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Materials Science and Engineering at the Inamori School of Engineering, New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University
Type
Thesis
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Keywords
Biomedical materials, Cancer--Treatment, Bioactive glasses