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Electric Field Effects on Tumor cell

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SANTOSH BHARADWAJ REDDY
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believed that the pore formation generates large openings
Abstract- High voltage engineering has wide in membrane accounting for transfer of large molecules
applications.. This study is one of the application of high across the tumor cell membrane. Eleectoporation is a
voltage engineering in medical field. Exposing tumor cells critical parameter involved in the treatment of cancer.
to pulsed electric field causes built up of charges in the Under normal physiological condition the cell membrane
cell membrane and may result in the dielectric conductance is several orders of magnitude lower than that
breakdown of the membrane. PEF of several kilovolts per of external medium. When high voltage is applied
centimeter amplitude and sub microsecond duration have
electroporation occurs. Due to electroporation there will be
been found to prevent the growth of tumor cell. Electric
an increase in conductance value and result in the rupture
field effect of tumor cell is studied for different electrode
configuration using finite element method. Different of the cell wall.(fig 1)
electrodes used are plate and needle electrode.

IndexTerms— tumor cell, pulsed electric field, plate and

needle electrodes, finite element method.

INTRODUCTION

Pulsed electric fields are known to have been used for

many applications. Some of them are Befouling Prevention,
Medical Applications and Bacterial Decontamination. The
most advanced medical application is used for cancer
treatment [1]. Here the tumor cell is treated with pulsed
electric field of 10-100 microsecond duration and amplitude
of the order of 10kV/cm. This is done by means of electrode
array inserted in to the affected tissue. So it is necessary to
study about the electric field distribution of different
electrode configuration[4]. In this study, the electrode
configurations considered are plate electrode and needle
electrode where plate electrode is used to study the electrical
field distribution of uniform field and needle electrode is
used to study about the electrical field distribution of non-
uniform field
Cells exposed to short and intense electric pulses
become permeable to number of various ionic molecules.
This phenomenon is termed electroporation. Tissues can also Fig 1 dielectric breakdown of cell membrane
be permeabilised. These approach based on electroporation
are used for cancer treatment. The use of high voltage pulse III. ELECTROPORATION THERAPY
power is used to prevent the growth of tumor cell. Thus an Electroporation (EP) explained as a phenomenon
attempt has been made to study the electrical field effect on in which a cell exposed to the high voltage electric field that
tumor cells. temporarily destabilizes the Bilayer Lipid Membrane (BLM)
Exposing tumor cells to pulsed electric field causes and protein channels of the cell membrane[7]. The opening
build up of charges in the cell membrane and consequently and closing of closing channel is dependent on TMP. The
a change in the transmembrane potential of the cell. For gating potential of the channels constituted by proteins is in
low electric fields, this causes voltage gating of the protein the range 50mV. When PEF is applied, the voltage sensitive
channels in the cell membrane. With increasing electric protein channels will open, experience current much larger
field induced transmembrane voltages on the order of 1V that the current normally experienced during metabolic
forms electropores on tumour cell membrane [9]. It is activities and as a result of protein channels are irreversibly
 denatured (i.e. eliminates enzyme activities of the protein
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channels). The lipid bilayer is also susceptible to applied
electric fields due to its net electric charge. The application
of electric field causes lipid molecules to reorient thus
creating hydrophilic pores which conduct current and
eventually leads to the rupture of cell wall. Thus
electroporation in the tumor cell membrane occurs both in
protein channels and in the lipid bilayers resulting in the
inactivation of tumor cell.
both the side of the tumor cell. High voltage of the order of
20kV is been applied and electric field distribution is studied
for plate and needle electrode. The electrode gap spacing is
about 10mm. The tumor cell is placed in low conductivity
medium. Mostly the cell membrane thickness is small
compared to the size of the cell.

FIG(3) CELL MODEL

FIG 3. CELL MODEL

VI. PARAMETERS USED IN SIMULATION

Table 1: Tumor cell parameters

A. Parameters
Fig 2. Electroporation of cell membrane I. DENOTATION AND VALUE
Cytoplasm 0.48 S/m
IV. PEF IN CANCER TREATMENT conductivity
Some of the methods used for treating cancer are surgery, Cytoplasmic 60 As/Vm
chemotherapy, radiation therapy, immunotherapy, permittivity
monoclonal antibody therapy etc. Choice of therapy depends Membrane 9.1e-6S/m
upon loction and grade of tumor and stage of disease and conductivity
state of patient[12]. Surgery and radiation therapies are the Membrane permittivity 9.8 As/Vm
major curative modalities. Use of chemotherapy along with Extracellular medium 1e-2S/m
short electrical pulses could be more effective for treatment conductivity
of cancer. Complete removal of cancer cell without damage Cell radius 10µ m
to the rest of the body is the goal of treatment. Sometimes Membrane thickness 5nm
this can be accomplished by Surgery but the propensity of Distance between the 10mm
cancer to invade adjacent tissue or to spread to distant sites electrodes
by microscopic metastatis often limits its effectiveness.
Effectiveness of chemotherapy is limited by toxicity to other
tissues in the body. Radiation can also cause damage to
VII ELECTRIC FIELD DISTRIBUTION FOR TUMOR
normal tissues.
CELL
. There are many potential advantages of
electroporation therapy over conventional treatments. It may
be best suitable for cancers near critical organs where surgery A.PLATE ELECTRODE
and/or radiation therapy have failed. Furthermore, this The field distribution for plate electrode is
treatment modality has the potential of overcoming the shown below. Plate electrode is used to show the uniformity
multidrug resistance problem and it has been reported to of the field. Uniformity in the sense that the electric field
reduce the number of metastatic nodules when primary tumor distribution for the plate electrode is uniform. Here since
was treated[8]. plate electrode is considered, the stress is uniform. Further
PEF can be performed at relatively low, non-toxic electric field strength required is high for this type of
drug concentration as a single treatment with minimal side electrode.
effects; it may be suitable for nonresectable tumors and can
save functional tissues. This is the reason for moving to
pulsed electric field method for treating cancer.

V.TUMOR CELL MODEL

The following tumour cell model is used in
the ANSOFT analysis. The tumor cell has its own parameters
which is given in table (5). Two electrodes are placed on
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field i.e electric field distribution is not uniform here. Stress

is more since non-uniform electrode is used. In this
configuration electric field intensity is less compared to that
of plate electrode.

(a)

(a)

(b)

(b)

(c)

(c)

Fig 4 (a). equipotential plot for tumor cell (b) phi

plot (c) stress plot

From the figure 4(b) it is observed at high

voltage surface , the potential is maximum and it goes on
decreasing when the distance between electrode increases.
Similarly from fig 4(c), the electric field intensity is high
at the high voltage electrode surface.

B. NEEDLE ELECTRODE

The field distribution for needle electrode is shown below.

Needle electrode is used to show the non- uniformity of the

(d)
Fig (a) equipotential plot for needle electrode (b) phi(line-
line ) for needle electrode (c) stress plot (d) magnitude E
plot
From fig 5(c) it is observed that for non uniform
field, at the high voltage surface potential is maximum and it
goes on decreasing when distance between electrode
increases.
VIII. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Finite element method is used to simulate the
electric field generated by different electrode configuration
in a cancer cell. Generally electric field of the order of 10-
50kV is needed to kill the tumour cells. Here electric field
analysis was carried out for plate and needle electrode
configuration and the field intensity was calculated
numerically.
From the stress plot it can be concluded that , non
invasive plate electrodes are better suited for tumors on the
surface of the skin, whereas needle electrodes are used with
appropriate depth of insertion, more suitable for treating
subcutaneous tumor seeded deeper in the skin.
For a given electrode size and spacing between the
electrodes, electrode shape has no influence on electric field
because of uniformity of the field. But the needle shaped
electrode has influence of electric field due to non uniformity
in the field
II. CONCLUSION
Finite Element Analysis investigates the electric
field intensity as a function of distance under uniform and
non-uniform field. From this study it is seen that plate
electrode have high electric field intensity whereas it is less
for needle electrode. Since needle electrode have non-
uniform field, it breaksdown earlier. So it needs less electric
field intensity.
REFERENCES
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Corresponding Author: A.Priyadharsini,Department of Electrical
& Electronics Engineering, College of Engineering, Guindy, Anna
University, Chennai25
dharshinigce@yahoo.co.in, vg_sree@annauniv.edu.