Numerical Study for Needle Electrode in Treatment of Cutaneous Tumor Model

The electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a cancer treatment based on joint action between chemotherapy drugs and high electric fields over the tissue. A relevant parameter to ECT efficiency is the complete coverage of target tissue by a sufficiently high electric field E REV . The induced transmembrane voltage for the reversible threshold open pores in the cells and macromolecules go through. Strong electric fields produce cell instability and necrosis. We present a case study of a cutaneous tumor in veterinary oncology, which was used to validate the model. We used 3D finite element numerical models with an ellipsoidal tumor, a skin of three layers and needle electrodes (type II and III). The goal of this work was vary such parameters as distance between needles, electrode polarities and arrangement to evaluate the distribution of electric field. We observed that increasing the rows distance, or reducing the space between needles in same row reduces the minimum voltage necessary to cover the entire tumor with electric field higher than E REV . Our results allowed us to conclude that type II electrodes are adequate to treatment of cutaneous ellipsoidal tumor.