Development of a non-invasive flexible directional microwave ablation for central lung cancer: a simulation study.

Transbronchial microwave ablation (MWA) with flexible antennas has gradually become an attractive alternative to percutaneous MWA for lung cancer due to its characteristic of non-invasiveness. However, flexible antennas for the precision ablation of lung cancer that is adjacent to critical bronchial structures are still missing. In this study, a non-invasive flexible directional (FD) antenna for early-stage central lung cancer surrounding bronchial was proposed. A comprehensive numerical MWA model with the FD antenna was developed in a real human-sized left lung model. The structure of the antenna and the treatment protocol were optimized by a generic algorithm for the precision ablation of two cases of early-stage central lung cancers (i.e., subspherical and ellipsoidal). The electromagnetic efficiency of the optimized antenna was also improved by implementing an optimized π-matching network for impedance matching. The results indicate that the electromagnetic energy of MWA can be restricted to a particular area for precision ablation of specific lung cancer using the FD antenna. This study can contribute to the field of lung cancer management with MWA.&#xD.