Numerical Investigation on the Effect of Different Physiological Cancerous Breast Parameters on the Output of Microwave Ablation

Abstract

Microwave ablation (MWA) is a newly developed minimally invasive tumor therapy which possesses several advantages over the existing thermal therapies. Despite the several advantages, MWA also suffers same disadvantages similar to other thermal therapies like poor control over ablation volume. Sensitivity of different tissue parameters is the key factor to design a MWA protocol. In this work, sensitivity analysis has been conducted to quantify the effect of three cancerous breast parameters, viz., breast composition, tumor location, and tumor size, on the efficacy of MWA of breast cancer. Ablation volume has been taken as the indicator of the ablation efficacy during MWA procedure. A Taguchi's design of experimental approach has been utilized to optimize the number of simulations required for the analysis and then analysis of variance (ANOVA) has been performed to predict the most sensitive parameter along with their individual contribution. Finite element approach-based simulations have been performed in a multiphysics software. First, a grid-independent study has been established to optimize the number of mesh elements and to reduce the computational cost. Then, after finding the most optimum grid size, all the simulations have been performed in accordance with the protocol obtained from Taguchi's design of experiment approach and finally statistical analysis software has been used for analyzing Taguchi's design. It has been found that, the breast composition to be the most significant factor, with maximum contribution in ablation volume, among three considered factors followed by tumor location and tumor size, respectively.

A Survey of the Thermal Analysis of Implanted Antennas for Wireless Biomedical Devices

“…Conversely, far from the implanted antenna, the heat was weak, resulting in lower temperature values. In [33], the influence of three breast cancer-related parameters on the implanted antenna temperature distribution was investigated. These parameters were defined as (1) breast composition (i.e., extremely dense, heterogeneously dense, scattered fibro-glandular, and predominantly fatty), (2) tumor location affecting implanted antenna distance from the skin surface (i.e., 2.25 cm, 2.5 cm, 2.75 cm, and 3 cm), and (3) tumor size (i.e., 2 cm, 2.5 cm, 3 cm, and 3.5 cm).…”

“…Many parameters influence the thermal rise observed during the IBD's operation. Moreover, each individual possesses distinct biological characteristics, including tissue density, mechanical and electrical properties, and physiological characteristics [33]. Consequently, there is a significant need to conduct parametric studies to evaluate the impact of different parameters on the heat dissipation of IBDs and, subsequently, their overall efficiency [34].…”