In-Silico Comparison of Thermal Microwave Ablation Therapy for Segmental Microcalcifications in Homogenous and Heterogenous Breast Tissue Models

Abstract

Abstract Among women across the world, breast cancer is the number one cause of death since 2020. Some of the main treatments against this affection represent severe physiological and aesthetic adverse effects. To reduce these side effects, many minimally invasive treatments have been researched. One of these many techniques is ablation therapy by emission of electromagnetic waves, chemical or cryogenic means. This work aims to compare the computational modelling of microwave ablation therapy in heterogeneous (volume of tissue driven) and homogeneous (density of tissue driven) breasts that present segmental microcalcifications. The main objective is to compare the differences between thermal, reflection parameters and power reflection between the two model simulations. For the application of microwave radiation, a coaxial dual-slot antenna model, at an operating frequency of 2.45 GHz, and 12 W of input power was used. The simulations of each homogeneous model yielded a power reflection below 17% and reached the desired 50°C ablation temperatures below 250s therapy time. Specifically, the Low-Density model got an SWR of 1.78, a -11.023 dB S11and a power reflection of 7.913%. The heterogenous model simulations got a power reflection above 18% and reached the desired 50°C ablation temperatures below 250s therapy time. Where each desired parameter yielded closed results, being the best the High-Density model with respect to a SWR of 2.4897, and 18.223% of reflected power. The data shows that it is best to consider the variation in dielectric properties of a homogenous breast model rather than the segmentation of the tissues. Therefore, more research is required for the optimization of the antenna for each homogenous breast density considering other malignant tissues.