Electrochemotherapy: an emerging drug delivery method for the treatment of cancer

The combined treatment consisting of a chemotherapeutic agent and pulsed electric fields has been termed electrochemotherapy. This relatively new treatment modality relies on the physical effects of locally applied electric fields to destabilize cell membranes in the presence of a drug. Membrane destabilization, electroporation, allows increased movement of molecules into the cytosol. Thus, the pulses are used to locally deliver drugs to the interior of cells. This type of treatment has principally been used to deliver bleomycin to tumor cells in vitro and in vivo. Marked antitumor effects have been reported in preclinical studies. In addition, electrochemotherapy clinical trials have been conducted for the treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, melanoma, and basal cell carcinoma. Objective response rates ranging from 72 to 100% have been reported from these trials. A review of the preclinical and clinical data for this novel drug delivery method is presented.