@conference {147, title = {3D Assessment of Irreversible Electroporation Treatments in Vegetal Models}, booktitle = {1st World Congress on Electroporation and Pulsed Electric Fields in Biology, Medicine and Food \& Environmental Technologies}, series = {IFMBE Proceedings}, volume = {53}, year = {2016}, pages = {294-297}, publisher = {Springer Singapore}, organization = {Springer Singapore}, keywords = {In-vivo assessment, Irreversible electroporation, Potato, Three-dimensional, Vegetal model}, isbn = {978-981-287-816-8}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-817-5_65}, author = {Q. Castellv{\'\i} and J. Ban{\'u}s and Antoni Ivorra}, editor = {Jarm, Tomaz and Kramar, Peter} } @conference {133, title = {Selective Electroporation of Liver Tumor Nodules by Means of Hypersaline Infusion: A Feasibility Study}, booktitle = {6th European Conference of the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering}, series = {IFMBE Proceedings}, volume = {45}, year = {2015}, pages = {821-824}, publisher = {Springer International Publishing}, organization = {Springer International Publishing}, abstract = {

Spread tumors in liver are not suitable to be treated with local treatments, such as conventional surgery or radiofrequency ablation, thus entailing a poor prognosis. Electroporation-based therapies imply the delivery of pulsed high electric fields and currently are performed in a local fashion using needle or plate electrodes. Here, however, it is proposed a novel electroporation paradigm in which field delivery is not local. All the tumor nodules will be selectively treated using large plate electrodes at both sides of the liver. By infusing an hypersaline solution of high electrical conductivity through the portal vein, the electrical conductivity of healthy tissues and tumor nodules will be made significantly different so that the electric field will be focused on the undesirable tissues. Numerical simulations were used to evaluate the feasibility of the proposed technique. In addition, an in vivo procedure was carried out to assess whether it is possible and practical to significantly modify the conductivity of the liver tissue by hypersaline infusion. Both the numerical simulations and the in vivo procedure provided encouraging results.

}, keywords = {Disseminated nodules, Electroporation, Hypersaline, Liver, Spread tumors}, isbn = {978-3-319-11127-8}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-11128-5_204}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11128-5_204}, author = {Q. Castellv{\'\i} and Patricia S{\'a}nchez-Vel{\'a}zquez and Berjano, Enrique and Burd{\'\i}o, Fernando and Antoni Ivorra} } @conference {Gonzalez-Sosa2013, title = {{Fast flow-through non-thermal pasteurization using constant radiofrequency electric fields}}, booktitle = {Tenth International Bioelectrics Symposium (BIOELECTRICS 2013)}, year = {2013}, address = {Karlsruhe, Germany}, abstract = {

Pulsed Electric Field technologies have captured the attention of researchers on food pasteurization because of their non-thermal inactivation mechanism, which results in fresh-like products. Nevertheless, high voltage pulsing required by these technologies implies complex and costly generators. Here, as an alternative, it is proposed a method, partially inherited from research on cell electroporation for gene transfection, in which the liquid to be treated flows at high speed through a miniature chamber where the electric field is permanently applied. In particular, it is proposed that the constantly applied electric field consists of an AC signal (\> 100 kHz) so that electrochemical by-products are minimized. The method, while being compatible with batch processing, will allow use of lower voltages and will avoid the pulsation requirement.\ 

}, author = {J. Gonz{\'a}lez-Sosa and A. Ruiz-Vargas and G. Arias and Q. Castellv{\'\i} and Antoni Ivorra} } @conference {Castellvi2013, title = {{In vivo study using Tumor Treatment Fields (TTFs) and prolonged mild hyperthermia as adjuvant methods for cancer treatment}}, booktitle = {Tenth International Bioelectrics Symposium (BIOELECTRICS 2013)}, year = {2013}, address = {Karlsruhe, Germany}, abstract = {

Delivery of the so called Tumor Treatment Fields (TTFs) was proposed a few years ago as a cancer therapy and has been object of study in a recent phase III trial in which their efficacy against glioblastomas was assessed with modest results [1]. TTFs are alternating electric fields at a frequency in the order of 100 kHz and a magnitude below 300 V/m which are applied continuously for weeks. According to their proposers, TTFs inhibit tumor growth by interfering with the cell division process through electrical forces without causing significant heating in tissues. However, we estimate that TTFs are capable of producing temperature increases of about some tens of kelvin which cannot be neglected, particularly because TTFs are applied for long periods of time. Therefore, we hypothesized that the promising results reported in initial in vitro and in vivo studies on the use of TTFs could be mediated by heat rather than by electrical forces. Heat induction (i.e. hyperthermia) has been extensively used as an adjuvant in cancer treatment. Typically, cancer hyperthermia involves generating moderate temperature increases during about one hour after radiotherapy or chemotherapy sessions. Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge, there are no in vivo studies on the use of mild hyperthermia for long periods of time, despite there are in vitro studies showing that cell survival to hyperthermia depends both on the temperature and the exposition time. In order to test our hypothesis and also to independently validate the efficacy of TTFs, we have carried out a study in which nude mice subcutaneously implanted with human exocrine pancreatic adenocarcinomas were physically treated for 7 days; either with heat from a resistor or with TTFs delivered by electrodes. The animals were paired: one was treated and the other was sham treated. Four treatment groups were created: hyperthermia (H) (n=5+5), hyperthermia + gemcitabine chemotherapy (H\&Ch) (n=6+6), TTFs (TTF) (n=5+5) and TTFs + gemcitabine therapy (TTF\&Ch) (n=7+7). Our hypothesis has not been validated: no statistically significant effects were observed in the H and H\&Ch groups. On the other hand, although the TTF group did also not produce any significant effect, the animals treated with the TTFs + chemotherapy combination show a tumor growth rate about 200\% smaller (p=0.018) than the animals treated only with chemotherapy.

}, author = {Q. Castellv{\'\i} and Mireia M. Ginest{\`a} and G. Capella and Antoni Ivorra} }