Electrochemotherapy of tumours

Several novel tumour-targeting and drug-delivery approaches in cancer treatment are currently undergoing intensive investigation, among them physical approaches such as tissue electroporation. Since the early 1980s, electroporation has proved to be effective in facilitating the transport of various molecules across the plasma membrane. By using short, intense electric pulses, the plasma membrane becomes permeable to molecules such as bleomycin and cisplatin that are otherwise deprived of membrane transport mechanisms. The most appropriate electric pulses are those of a duration and amplitude suitable to preserving the viability of cells, allowing for resealing of the cell membrane a few minutes after the application of the pulses1. Electroporation-based cancer treatment approaches are currently undergoing intensive investigation in the field of drug delivery and gene therapy. The first biomedical application of this method of treating cancer came in the form of electrochemotherapy, which, since its beginnings in the late 1980s, has evolved into a clinically verified treatment approach for cutaneous and subcutaneous tumour nodules 2.