Electrochemotherapy Effectiveness Loss Due to Electrode Bending: An In Silico and In Vitro Study

In electrochemotherapy, needle electrodes can be used to apply electric fields in biological tissues to catalyze chemotherapy drug effect. Electrode bending, which is not entirely unavoidable, may affect the capacity of covering the entire tumor mass by insufficiently high electric fields. This paper aims to study how electrode needles misplacement affect the effectiveness of EQT, using in silico and in vitro experiments to analyze inwards and outwards bending. We observed an electric current increase at inwards bending. On the other hand, the electric field distribution is disturbed when they bent outwards. Both cases may induce treatment effectiveness loss. Based on those results, it is recommended to avoid usage of electrodes with mechanical deformations during electrochemotherapy treatments.