Modeling of irreversible electroporation treatments for the optimization of pancreatic cancer therapies

Abstract

Irreversible Electroporation (IRE) is a minimally invasive non-thermal ablation technique that can be used to eradicate tumors and other undesirable tissue. IRE consists of a series of short (70-100 1048727;s) pulses that are believed to induce nano-scale defects in the cell membrane, leading to cell death. One of the challenges with predicting therapeutic outcome for IRE is that electric field contours become distorted in complex heterogeneous tissues. Here, we present a pre-treatment planning methodology for IRE procedures, which optimizes treatment parameters for individual cases of unresectable Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC). The patient’s tumor, pancreas, major blood vessels, and surrounding structures were reconstructed via the virtual merging of segmented CT and/or MRI images. Using finite element models, which consider the electrical and thermal properties of tissues, it is possible to predict lesion size, thermal effects, and damage corresponding to each structure included in our model. Postoperative patient images can be used to validate these predictive models. Future work will focus on incorporating changes in tissue conductivity from electroporation and temperature, which may lead to more accurate treatment outcomes.