Electrochemotherapy: A Review of Current Status, Alternative IGP Approaches, and Future Perspectives
Open Access
- 3 January 2019
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Hindawi Limited in Journal of Healthcare Engineering
- Vol. 2019, 1-11
- https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/2784516
Abstract
The efficiency of electroporation (EP) has made it a widely used therapeutic procedure to transfer cell killing substances effectively to the target site. A lot of researches are being done on EP-based cancer treatment techniques. Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is the first EP-based application in the field of drug administration. ECT is a local and nonthermal treatment of cancer that combines the use of a medical device with pharmaceutical agents to obtain local tumor control in solid cancers. It involves the application of eight, 100µs, pulses at 1 or 5000 Hz frequency and specified electric field (V/cm) with a median duration of 25 minutes. The efficacy of chemotherapeutic drugs increases by applying short and intense electrical pulses. Several clinical studies proposed ECT as a safe and complementary curative or palliative treatment option (curative intent of 50% to 63% in the treatment of Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC)) to treat a number of solid tumors and skin malignancies, which are not suitable for conventional treatments. It is used currently for treatment of cutaneous and subcutaneous lesions, without consideration of their histology. On the contrary, it is also becoming a practical method for treatment of internal, deep-seated tumors and tissues. A review of this method, needed instruments, alternative image-guided procedures (IGP) approaches, and future perspectives and recommendations are discussed in this paper.Funding Information
- Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (03IPT7100X, ZS/2016/09//81061/IK 01/2015)
This publication has 37 references indexed in Scilit:
- Malignant Melanoma S3‐Guideline “Diagnosis, Therapy and Follow‐up of Melanoma”JDDG: Journal der Deutschen Dermatologischen Gesellschaft, 2013
- Electrochemotherapy: technological advancements for efficient electroporation-based treatment of internal tumorsMedical & Biological Engineering & Computing, 2012
- Electrochemotherapy of cutaneous metastasis from breast cancer in elderly patients: a preliminary reportBMC Surgery, 2012
- Electrochemotherapy of chest wall breast cancer recurrenceCancer Treatment Reviews, 2012
- An e-learning application on electrochemotherapyBioMedical Engineering OnLine, 2009
- Radiofrequency and Microwave Ablation of the Liver, Lung, Kidney, and Bone: What Are the Differences?Current Problems in Diagnostic Radiology, 2009
- Electrochemotherapy in treatment of tumoursEuropean Journal of Surgical Oncology, 2008
- Bases and rationale of the electrochemotherapyEuropean Journal of Cancer Supplements, 2006
- Electrochemotherapy – An easy, highly effective and safe treatment of cutaneous and subcutaneous metastases: Results of ESOPE (European Standard Operating Procedures of Electrochemotherapy) studyEuropean Journal of Cancer Supplements, 2006
- Standard operating procedures of the electrochemotherapy: Instructions for the use of bleomycin or cisplatin administered either systemically or locally and electric pulses delivered by the CliniporatorTM by means of invasive or non-invasive electrodesEuropean Journal of Cancer Supplements, 2006