Author/Editor     Serša, Gregor
Title     Electrochemotherapy
Type     članek
Source     In: Kotnik T, Miklavčič D, editors. MEDICON 2001: Mediterranean conference on medical and biological engineering and computing. Proceedings of the workshop on Electroporative assisted drug delivery: electrochemotherapy and genetherapy; 2001 Jun 11; Pula. Ljubljana: Faculty of electrical engineering,
Publication year     2001
Volume     str. 1-3
Language     eng
Abstract     Abstract: Electrochemotherapy consists of chemotherapy followed by local application of electric pulses to the tumor to increase drug delivery into the tumors. Electrochemotherapy has been shown to be successful for drugs such as bleomycin and cisplatin, which normally exhibit impeded transport through the plasma membrane. The increased anti-tumor effectiveness of bleomycin and cisplatin combined with electric pulses has already been demonstrated in experimental and clinical studies. In clinical studies, electrochemotherapy was performed on cutaneous and subcutaneous tumor nodules of malignant melanoma, head and neck carcinomas, basal cell carcinomas, adenocarcinomas, and Kaposi's sarcomas. Objective responses were obtained for the majority of the electrochemotherapytreated nodules, whereas nodules that were exposed only to electric pulses or treated only with the drugs did not respond. Perspectives of electrochemotherapy are in treatment of various solid tumors. Developments in new electrode design will enable also treatment of tumors seated in internal organs. Electrochemotherapy can be used also in combination with other treatment modalities. Improvement of combined modality therapy with cisplatin and radiation using electroporation of tumors has already been demonstrated. In perspective, reduced tumor perfusion after application of electric pulses could be exploted in combination with bioreductive drugs. All these developments in electrochemotherapy are good baisis for its further development, which will lead to broader clinical applicability of electrochemotherapy.
Descriptors     NEOPLASMS
ELECTROPORATION
BLEOMYCIN
CISPLATIN
DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEMS
MELANOMA