Mathematical Model Developments for Thermochemical Ablation

Thermochemical ablation (TCA) is a novel approach to minimally invasive therapy of Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In TCA, targeted tissue is treated with the heat released and the salt formed from an acid-base injection. The by-products create an environment that may increase the diameter of the lethal zone, and serve as a local diffusion reservoir to reduce the risk of local recurrence. In this poster, the impact of heat and salt on treated cells is studied by developing a mathematical model to evaluate TCA injections.

The most apparent changes induced by temperature and concentration in TCA are the changes in the ablative solutions and in the targeted tissue. We show that Laliberté and Cooper's model is useful for describing the changes in density of the ablative solutions at temperatures and concentrations that are relevant to TCA. We also show that the modified Arrhenius model can accurately estimate tissue damage on different HCC cells. Finally, we develop a procedure to manufacture foam phantoms that mimic liver porosity. A fully developed liver-mimicking phantom will provide a reproducible, controlled environment to validate all of the models' predictions.