## 4 Conclusions  
This paper reports on simulation studies of the effect of microwave ablation on the early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma. For this purpose, a full three-dimensional model has been developed and tested within COMSOL Multiphysics, a finite element method-based platform [71]. Calculations were performed for a model of real liver tumor extracted from the database 3D-ICRADb-01 [70], exposed to radiation by a 10-slot microwave antenna operating at 2.45 GHz, combined with biological materials data collected from the literature [68]. The obtained simulation results show that full 3D simulation of the ablation process provides the best operating parameters (input power of 13 W and ablation time of 600 s) to achieve the greatest performance of MWA for this concrete, real, complex antenna and realistic tumor tissue [70]. Other antennas or tumor shapes will require different operating parameters. The inclusion of the temperature dependence of the heat capacity, the thermal conductivity, and blood perfusion, is important for calculating the correct ablation time, thus contributing to the preservation of the healthy tissue. One of the main characteristics associated with the efficiency of MWA is that temperature profile is mainly governed by the heat-source distribution. The temperature increases during ablation and reaches the maximal value near the microwave antenna slots. After achieving saturation, the diffusion and the heat conduction due to the blood perfusion become significant. Temperature distributions are almost spherical, and the damage zones are concentrated around the tip and slots of the antenna. The extension of the necrotic tissue increases, taking place mainly in the tumor, and only a small amount of surrounding tissue is damaged.  
Conceptualization, B.R. and M.R.-R.; methodology, M.S., M.P., L.S., P.C. and M.R.-R.; software, all of the authors; investigation and data interpretation, B.R., M.S., M.P., L.S. and P.C.; original draft preparation, B.R. and M.R.-R.; writing--review, and editing, all of the authors; supervision, B.R. and M.R.-R. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
Figure 11: (**a**) The liver tumor [70] is shown as triangulated surface and isocontours corresponding to the fractions of damage of 0.3 (violet), 0.5 (blue), 0.75 (dark green), and 1 (dark gray). (**b**) The time evolution of the necrotic tissue was calculated at four test points (A, B, C, and D) marked in Figure 4b.  
**Funding:** This publication has been written thanks to the support of the Operational Programme Integrated Infrastructure for the project: Advancing University Capacity and Competence in Research, Development and Innovation (ACCORD) (ITMS code: 313021X329), cofunded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and the Institute of Physics Belgrade, University of Belgrade, through the grant by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia.  
**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.  
**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.  
**Data Availability Statement:** The data are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.  
**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.