title: Electrochemotherapy of chest wall breast cancer recurrence.
abstract: Chest wall breast cancer recurrence after mastectomy is a disease difficult to treat. Its incidence varies between 5% and 30% in different subset of patients. When possible, radical surgical therapy represents the main treatment approach, however when the disease progresses and/or treatments are not successful, ulceration, bleeding, lymphedema and psychological distress of progressive disease significantly decrease the quality of the remaining life of a patient. When surgical excision of chest wall recurrence is not possible, other local treatments such as radiotherapy, radiotherapy with hyperthermia, topical chemotherapy and electrochemotherapy might be taken into account. Electrochemotherapy provides safe, efficient and non-invasive locoregional treatment approach for chest wall breast cancer recurrence. Several clinical studies have demonstrated high efficacy and a good safety profile of electrochemotherapy applied in single or multiple consecutive sessions, till clinical response was reached. Electrochemotherapy can be performed either with cisplatin injected intratumorally or with bleomycin given intratumorally or intravenously. Furthermore, it can be effectively used in heavily pre-treated areas, after surgery, radiotherapy or systemic chemotherapy. These are the advantages that might demand its use especially in patients with pre-treated extensive disease and in frail elderly patients. With development of the technology electrochemotherapy could even be suggested as a primary local therapy in patients not suitable for surgical removal of the primary tumor.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Oncology Ljubljana, Zaloska 2, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. gsersa@onko-i.si
authors.forename: Gregor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sersa
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cufer
authors.forename: Snezna Marija
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Paulin
authors.forename: Maja
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cemazar
authors.forename: Marko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Snoj
mesh_terms: D001761:Bleomycin / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology* / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery; D002945:Cisplatin / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D053672:Electrochemotherapy / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery; D013899:Thoracic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D035441:Thoracic Wall / Q000473:pathology*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D001761:Bleomycin; D002945:Cisplatin