Physical modeling of microwave ablation zone clinical margin variance

Abstract

The results from simulating the variance in malignant tissue thermal and electrical properties will help guide better approximations for MWA treatments. The results suggest that assuming malignant and healthy liver tissues have similar dielectric properties is a reasonable first approximation. Antenna placement relative to the tumor has minimal impact on the absolute size of the ablation zone, yet it does cause relevant variation between desired treatment margin and ablation zone. Blood vessel cooling, especially hepatic vessels close to the region of interest, may be a significant factor to consider in treatment planning. Further data need to be collected for assessing treatment planning utility of modeling MWA in this context.