Thermoelectric Decoupling for Electric Field Therapy in Glioblastoma

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a common malignant primary tumor with a high recurrence rate following surgery and chemoradiotherapy, resulting in a five-year survival rate of only 6.9%. Tumor Treating Fields (TTF), an emerging non-invasive treatment option, continuously inhibit GBM proliferation by applying low-intensity alternating electric fields. However, the therapeutic mechanism of TTF under multi-physical field coupling remains unclear, and prolonged electromagnetic field exposure results in significant heat generation. This study investigates the electro-thermal effects during TTF treatment and employs in vitro experimental setups and numerical methods to achieve a decoupling analysis of the electro-thermal coupling. Continuous electric field application (2 V/cm, 48 h) induced a temperature rise of 2.61°C. While both isolated electric and thermal fields inhibited GBM proliferation (32.0% and 16.1% respectively), TTF exhibited superior therapeutic efficacy with a 54.4% inhibition rate. Through thermal-electric decoupling, this study elucidated the principles of TTF in treating glioblastoma under multi-field coupling effects, providing crucial insights for optimizing thermo-electric combined treatment protocols and experimental apparatus design.