Effective Electrochemotherapy is possible with suitable multi-electrode needle array geometries, especially to treat larger areas, such as thigh and chest. This is critical to expedite the application of electrical pulses at the tumor area within a few minutes, after injection of the chemo drug, such as bleomycin, at the tumor, intratumorally or intravenously. To study the efficiency of larger electrode arrays, it is necessary to analyze their electric field distributions. This can be done by designing an effective model with electric needles so that an electric field of 1200 volts/cm could be generated at the point of tumor. To simulate these models with various configurations of electric needles, Maxwell 13 software was used. All the models were implemented in 2-D analysis. Several models with various number of electrodes were studied, including 2x2, 4x2, 4x4, and 12x2 configurations. The simulation results show uniform electric field over the desired area. The significance of this research is that using novel, multi-electrode needle arrays, a larger area of the cancer affected tissue can be treated faster than currently used 4mm needle arrays.
Breast cancer is the one of the most leading diseases and cause of death in the world. 21% of females diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009 did not survive. Hence, cancer therapy requires a new and novel approach to treat them. Over the last two decades, electroporation, which is the process by which external electrical pulses are applied to facilitate the transport of drugs into cells, is gaining momentum as an alternative treatment for cancers. Electric field distribution and magnitude is a dominant parameter in electroporation. This paper presents the electric field distribution in normal and cancerous breast tissues and the effects of electrode positions and additional layers of fat and skin. Using Maxwell SV, a two dimensional model of the human breast tissue is created and analyzed. Size of tissue is estimated based on the average size of breast and electrical parameters such as permittivity and conductivity are set for normal and cancerous tissues from available literature. From the Finite Element Analysis of the mode, electric field distribution is obtained and field strength is compared for different cases. Cancerous tissues have higher permittivities and conductivities compared to normal tissues. Analyses of electric field distributions show that they have reduced field strength thereby signifying greater susceptibility to external influence using electrical pulses. These results will help improve electroporation and pulse mediated drug delivery techniques for cancers that are not receptive to conventional therapies.
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