Fundamental mathematical model shows that applied electrical field enhances chemotherapy delivery to tumors

• A mathematical model that predicts the fraction of tumor killed due to a direct current (DC) applied electrical field and chemotherapy is developed here for tumor tissue surrounding a single, straight, cylindrical blood vessel.
• Results show the typical values of various parameters related to properties of the electrical field, tumor tissue and chemotherapy drug that have the most significant influence on the fraction of tumor killed.

Biobarriers imposed by the tumor microenvironment create a challenge to deliver chemotherapeutics effectively. Electric fields can be used to overcome these biobarriers in the form of electrochemotherapy, or by applying an electric field to tissue after chemotherapy has been delivered systemically. A fundamental understanding of the underlying physical phenomena governing tumor response to an applied electrical field is lacking. Building upon the work of Pascal et al. [1], a mathematical model that predicts the fraction of tumor killed due to a direct current (DC) applied electrical field and chemotherapy is developed here for tumor tissue surrounding a single, straight, cylindrical blood vessel. Results show the typical values of various parameters related to properties of the electrical field, tumor tissue and chemotherapy drug that have the most significant influence on the fraction of tumor killed. We show that the applied electrical field enhances tumor death due to chemotherapy and that the direction and magnitude of the applied electrical field have a significant impact on the fraction of tumor killed.