Numerical Model of Dog Mast Cell Tumor Treated by Electrochemotherapy

Abstract

Electrochemotherapy is a combination of high electric field and anticancer drugs. The treatment basis is electroporation or electropermeabilization of the cell membrane. Electroporation is a threshold phenomenon and, for efficient treatment, an adequate local distribution of electric field within the treated tissue is important. When this local electric field is not enough, there is a regrown tumor cell; however, if it is stronger than necessary, permanent damage to the tissue occurs. In the treatment of dogs, electrochemotherapy is not yet an established treatment for mast cell tumor in veterinary medicine, although there are studies showing evidence of its effectiveness. In this study, we examined electrochemotherapy of dog mast cell tumor with numerical simulation of local electric field distribution. The experimental result was used to validate the numerical models. The effect of tumor position and tissue thickness (tumor in different parts of dog body) was investigated using plate electrodes. Our results demonstrated that the electrochemotherapy is efficient and flexible, and even when the tumor extends into the subcutis, the treatment with plate electrode eliminated the tumor cells. This result suggests that electrochemotherapy is a suitable method to treat mast cell tumors in dog.

Conductive Gel Increases the Small Tumor Treatment With Electrochemotherapy Using Needle Electrodes

“…Studies have demonstrated that in silico methodologies can predict clinical results of electrochemotherapy (4,5,24). The sigmoidal model (Eq.…”

“…The simulation argues with the clinical result; the small tumor (4 mm) was eliminated, even using needle electrodes. Nevertheless, this treatment recommends ensuring the largest electrode-tissue contact surface (4,11). 4A shows tumor elimination, it does not happen when tumor height is 3 mm or higher (Fig.…”

Numerical Study for Needle Electrode in Treatment of Cutaneous Tumor Model

“…On this way, other works of our group [9,10] have already shown models using data from the veterinary clinic partner. However, in this work is presented a new tumor with ellipsoidal geometry (Fig.…”

“…In this work, as in our group previous publications [9,10], it was used the sigmoid model proposed by Šel et al [11] which considers the EP phenomenon, giving different values of tissue conductivity for the local EF. Our results allow us to conclude that type II electrodes are also adequate to treatment of cutaneous ellipsoidal tumors.…”

“…The aim of this work is to analyze a case study of a cutaneous tumor in veterinary oncology, similar to other works of our group [9,10], using data from the veterinary clinic partner. The goal is to study the EF distribution through the tumor varying such parameters as distance between needles, electrode polarities and arrangement.…”