Electrothermal Analysis of the Breast-Tumor Model During Electroporation

Short intense electric pulses surpass the capacitance of the cell membrane and leads to permeabilization [electroporation (EP)]. EP can be reversible [electrochemotherapy (ECT)] or irreversible(Treatment). EP-based treatments have gained much importance in recent past. Our work aims in analyzing the electroporated ablation area and comparing it with the existing thermal radiofrequency ablation (RFA) method. For parameter design optimization, a study is conducted to assess the damage induced by the electric field and temperature distribution on the heterogeneous human breast model. The results revealed that the electric field is more localized within the cancerous region with electrodes directly inserted into the tumor with maximum electric field of $6.21\times 10^{6}$ V/m. Maximum thermal damage of $5.51\times 10^{-8}$ is obtained during EP which is less than $1 ({\Omega } < 1)$ shows EP produces minimal damage. The largest ablation volume of 10136 mm ³ is obtained by using 8 electrodes (100 $\mu \text{s}$ ), whereas RFA produces 9326 mm ³ ablation volume (3 min), indicates that maximum ablation volume was attained in EP for lower duration with negligible thermal effects which is more advantageous than the existing thermal method. Furthermore, maximum temperature attained during RFA is 20.64% more than EP. Breast composition, location and size of tumor, and thermal conditions have maximum influence on the ablation volume generated during EP.