Treatment of rat bladder cancer with electrochemotherapy in vivo

It has been reported that the application of strong electric fields across a cell results in the formation and expansion of temporary membrane pores. Electrochemotherapy is a method which enhances the effectiveness of chemotherapeutic agents by administrating the drugs in combination with short intense electric pulses (1). Cell electropermeability allows nonpermeant or weakly permeant drugs to enter the cells. Electrochemotherapy is effective because electric pulses permeate any type of tumor cell membrane in vitro and in vivo. We have shown that electropermeabilization induces a twofold increase in the concentration of Bleomycin, in bladder cancer cells in vitro and in normal bladder tissue of rats in vivo (2). Here we introduce our method to assess the effectiveness of this therapy for rat's bladder cancer.