The course of tissue permeabilization studied on a mathematical model of a subcutaneous tumor in small animals

One of the ways to potentiate antitumor effectiveness of chemotherapeutic drugs is by local application of short intense electric pulses. This causes an increase of the cell membrane permeability and is called electropermeabilization. In order to study the course of tissue permeabilization of a subcutaneous tumor in small animals, a mathematical model was built with the commercial program EMAS, which uses the finite element method. The model is based on the tissue specific conductivity values found in literature, experimentally determined electric field threshold values of reversible and irreversible tissue permeabilization, and conductivity changes in the tissues. The results obtained with the model were then compared to experimental results from the treatment of subcutaneous tumors in mice and a good agreement was obtained. Our results and the reversible and irreversible thresholds used coincide well with the effectiveness of the electrochemotherapy in real tumors where experiments show antitumor effectiveness for amplitudes higher than 900 V/cm ratio and pronounced antitumor effects at 1300 V/cm ratio.