title: Locally enhanced chemotherapy by electroporation: clinical experiences and perspective of use of electrochemotherapy.
abstract: Electroporation is used to enhance drug diffusion and gene delivery into the cytosol. The combination of electroporation and cytotoxic drugs, electrochemotherapy (ECT), is used to treat metastatic tumor nodules located at the skin and subcutaneous tissue. The objective response rate following a single session of treatment exceeds 80%, with minimal toxicity for the patients. The efficacy of ECT in the bone and visceral metastasis is currently investigated, and Phase II studies have been completed. ECT has been used to treat skin primary tumors, except melanoma, and is under investigation for locally advanced pancreatic cancer. Early evidence suggests that treatment of tumor nodules with ECT recruits components of the immune system and eliciting a systemic immune response against cancer is a challenging clinical perspective. Considering the proven safety in several different clinical applications electroporation should be viewed as a clinical platform technology with wide perspectives for use in ECT, gene therapy and DNA vaccination.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Research, IGEA SpA, Via Parmenide 10/A, Carpi, Italy.
authors.forename: Ruggero
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cadossi
authors.forename: Mattia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ronchetti
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cadossi
mesh_terms: D001761:Bleomycin; D017322:Clinical Trials, Phase II as Topic; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods*; D053672:Electrochemotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D018274:Electroporation; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D001761:Bleomycin