A fast 3-D approach for electroporation treatment planning: optimal electrodes configuration

Purpose of this work is to develop a tool for electrochemotherapy treatment planning, which automatically estimates the optimal electrode configuration on the basis of the calculation of the induced electric field in a 3D tissue volume, including the tumor lesion, obtained from patient’s MRI. The tool conciliates accuracy in the estimate of the tumor coverage with speed of calculation. The optimal electrodes configuration, that guarantees the tumor electroporation with the minimum number of electrodes, is obtained by adapting algorithms for the creation of unstructured simplex meshes. To go fast, the elementary electric field distributions are pre-calculated and stored in a database and the optimization procedure is split in two consequential steps: transversal and longitudinal optimizations. The whole code is implemented in C++ environment. The tool, tested in a set of real cases, showed the complete electroporation of the lesions, while preserving noble structures from the electrodes crossing. Calculation times were compatible with real-time requirements. The proposed tool represents a valid support for the electroporation treatment planning. With respect to the literature, it automatically estimates the best electrode configuration in a realistic 3D domain, while maintaining reduced calculation times. This is crucial for improving effectiveness and reliability of electroporation-based treatments.