Electrochemotherapy--a novel method of cancer treatment

A critical review is presented on a novel method of treating cancer by a combination of an electric field with chemotherapeutic agents. The work described here summarizes the current state of the technique known as electrical impulse chemotherapy (EIC) or electrochemotherapy (ECT). The review discusses in vitro results with specific cell lines, in vivo work on animals and clinical results on patients with squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck. In all cases, it has been found that uptake of various drugs by the tumor cells can be increased markedly by EIC/ECT. Partial responses and complete cures have been observed without any damaging side-effects, provided the field strength is kept sufficiently low. ECT followed by injection of a low dose of interleukin-2 (IL-2) or IL-2 secreting cells has shown better results than ECT alone. There appears to be a systemic effect and a strong indication that an immune response may be elicited by this method of treatment. Finally, we discuss the challenges involved in hardware requirements for EIC/ECT and its future prospects for both drug delivery and gene therapy.