Conductive Gels as a Tool for Electric Field Homogenization and Electroporation in Discontinuous Regions: In Vitro and In Silico Study

Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a cancer treatment that combines chemotherapy and electroporation (EP) where EP is used to increase cells membrane permeability, facilitating the entrance of drugs into cancer cells. For successful treatment, the entire tumor region needs to be exposed to an adequate electric field intensity. In silico and in vitro studies are used in a pre-treatment step to analyse the electric field distribution and possible mistakes, especially in irregular and complex tissue structures such as protuberances and holes. Conductive gels can be used to fill irregular tissue structures and make the electric field distribution homogenous. In this paper, an in silico study and in vitro vegetal model were used to evaluate the effectiveness of commercial conductive gels in electric field homogenization of discontinuity areas. Both studies demonstrate that conductive gels were effective in homogenizing electric field in the discontinuity region.