Electric field distribution of human breast tissue

Breast cancer is the one of the most leading diseases and cause of death in the world. 21% of females diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009 did not survive. Hence, cancer therapy requires a new and novel approach to treat them. Over the last two decades, electroporation, which is the process by which external electrical pulses are applied to facilitate the transport of drugs into cells, is gaining momentum as an alternative treatment for cancers. Electric field distribution and magnitude is a dominant parameter in electroporation. This paper presents the electric field distribution in normal and cancerous breast tissues and the effects of electrode positions and additional layers of fat and skin. Using Maxwell SV, a two dimensional model of the human breast tissue is created and analyzed. Size of tissue is estimated based on the average size of breast and electrical parameters such as permittivity and conductivity are set for normal and cancerous tissues from available literature. From the Finite Element Analysis of the mode, electric field distribution is obtained and field strength is compared for different cases. Cancerous tissues have higher permittivities and conductivities compared to normal tissues. Analyses of electric field distributions show that they have reduced field strength thereby signifying greater susceptibility to external influence using electrical pulses. These results will help improve electroporation and pulse mediated drug delivery techniques for cancers that are not receptive to conventional therapies.