Treatment of Cancer In Vitro Using Radiation and High-Frequency Bursts of Submicrosecond Electrical Pulses

High-frequency irreversible electroporation (H-FIRE) is an emerging cancer therapy, which uses bursts of short duration, alternating polarity, high-voltage electrical pulses to focally ablate tumors. Here, we present a preliminary investigation of the combinatorial effects of H-FIRE and ionizing radiation. In vitro cell cultures were exposed to bursts of 500 ns pulses and single radiation doses of 2 or 20 Gy then analyzed for 14 days. H-FIRE and radiation therapy (RT) appear to induce different delayed cell death mechanisms and in all treatment groups combinatorial therapy resulted in lower overall viabilities. These results indicate that in vivo investigation of the antitumor efficacy of combined H-FIRE and RT is warranted.