3D model and simulation of electroporation application on healthy and tumoral breast tissue

Abstract

Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is an application of reversible electroporation which has been effectively used in subcutaneous tumors with resistivity values between 15 kΩcm and 10 MΩcm. ECT takes advantage of pores induction in order to facilitate the absorption of low concentration of cytotoxic drugs locally injected, and which lead to cellular apoptosis of neoplastic tissue. This work analyzes the application of an electroporation system, previously developed, into deep tissue such as breast tumors in which resistivity reduces drastically to a range from 100 Ωcm to 1 KΩcm depending on the type of tissue and operation frequency. The simulated electroporation system offers a sequence of rectangular pulse from 4 to 20 pulses with 200 V to 1000 V selected amplitudes, 50 μs to 500 μs width and repetition frequency of 1 Hz to 10 KHz, selected through a graphic interface according to user needs. In order to analyze the ablation zone and introduce the possibility of a treatment plan, it is presented a simulation of the application of ECT using the Finite Element Method (FEM) in a 3D model which includes healthy and cancerous breast tissue to determine the electric field distribution generated. Results show that 3D FEM modeling allowed the simulation of depth variation of electrodes in order to optimize the electric field generated and control the ablation zone in a neoplastic tissue. Besides, preliminary obtained 2D results suggest that ECT could be effective in deep tumor since it is exceeded the minimum electric field threshold of 100 V/cm, which is reported as enough to achieve reversible electroporation.