Clinical applications of electrochemotherapy

Electrochemotherapy is a novel treatment which consists of a combination of a chemotherapeutic agent and pulsed electric fields. This relatively new treatment modality relies on the physical effects of locally applied electric fields to temporarily destabilize cell membranes in the presence of a drug to allow increased uptake of the agent into the cytosol. Electrochemotherapy has been used effectively in preclinical and clinical studies. The therapy was shown to be effective regardless of histologic type of tumor including head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, melanoma, basal cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma and Kaposi's sarcoma. Objective response rates ranging from 72 percent to 100 percent have been reported from these trials. These responses were obtained with minimal adverse side effects. A review of the clinical data for this novel drug delivery method is presented.