Electrodes Deployment for IRE Tumor Ablation based on the Nelder-Mead Simplex Algorithm

Tumor is a major threat to human health. Compared with other treatment methods, the irreversible electroporation (IRE) technology can ablate the tumor with shorter time and retain the vascular, nerve and other important tissue, showing great clinical application prospects. However, there are stringent constraints on the electrodes deployment and thus high skills are required from the surgeon, which restricts this effective technology from being applied in a larger scale. In this paper, we propose a method to plan the IRE electrodes deployment with given medical images of the tumor region. First, we formulated the constraints for IRE electrodes deployment based on its working principles and clinical requirements for tumor ablation. Then, we established a framework to take in the medical images and transform the electrodes deployment problem into a complex optimization problem with multiple variables. After that, the Nelder-Mead simplex algorithm was adapted to solve the optimization problem and find a solution for IRE deployment. The tumor region can be ablated with the minimal number of electrodes. The proposed method was tested on real tumor data from medical CT scans, and its efficacy has been validated. Thus, we have established an automated electrodes deployment planning method for IRE tumor ablation surgery.