Radioembolization (RE) is a treatment for patients with liver cancer, one of the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. RE consists of the transcatheter intraarterial infusion of radioactive microspheres, which are injected at the hepatic artery level and are transported in the bloodstream, aiming to target tumors and spare healthy liver parenchyma. In paving the way towards a computer platform that allows for a treatment planning based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, the current simulation (model preprocess, model solving, model postprocess) times (of the order of days) make the CFD-based assessment non-viable. One of the approaches to reduce the simulation time includes the reduction in size of the simulated truncated hepatic artery. In this study, we analyze for three patient-specific hepatic arteries the impact of reducing the geometry of the hepatic artery on the simulation time. Results show that geometries can be efficiently shortened without impacting greatly on the microsphere distribution.

Erradioenbolizazioa (RE) gibeleko minbizia tratatzeko metodoetako bat da. Bertan, mikrokateter bidez gibeleko arterian mikroesfera erradioaktiboak injektatzen dira, hauek tumoreak enbolizazio eta erradiazio bidez erasotzeko. Mikroesferen ibilbidea ordenagailu bidezko fluido dinamika simulazioekin (CFD) aztertu daiteke. Kalkulu hauen iraupen luzea arazo bat da medikuntzaren egunerokotasunean simulazioak erabili ahal izateko. Kalkuluak azkartzeko asmoz, odolaren biskositatearen izaera ez‑newtondarra izaera newtondarrera sinplifikatu da. Emaitzek erakutsi dute mikroesferen banaketan eta odolaren hemodinamikan biskositate aldakorraren eragina mespretxagarria dela, odola fluido newtondar bezala aztertzearen sinplifikazioa ontzat emanez.

Computational fluid dynamics techniques are increasingly used to computer simulate radioembolization, a transcatheter intraarterial treatment for patients with inoperable tumors, and analyze the influence of treatment parameters on the microsphere distribution. Ongoing clinical research studies are exploring the influence of the microsphere density in tumors on the treatment outcome. In this preliminary study, we computationally analyzed the influence of the microsphere concentration in the vial on the microsphere concentration in the blood. A patient-specific case was used to simulate the blood flow and the microsphere transport during three radioembolization procedures in which the only parameter varied was the concentration of microspheres in the vial and the span of injection, resulting in three simulations with the same number of microspheres injected. Results showed that a time-varying microsphere concentration in the blood at the outlets of the computational domain can be analyzed using CFD, and also showed that there was a direct relationship between the variation of microsphere concentration in the vial and the variation of microsphere concentration in the blood. Future research will focus on elucidating the relationship between the microsphere concentration in the vial, the microsphere concentration in the blood, and the final microsphere distribution in the tissue.

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