Electrochemotherapy

Electrochemotherapy is a new antitumor strategy based on the delivery of short (100 microseconds) electric pulses and non-permeant anticancer drugs such as bleomycin. The electric pulses, which must cover the whole of the tumor volume, make permeable the cell membrane and allow the unrestricted penetration of the drug. Electrochemotherapy is a safe, very efficient and cost-effective treatment which is spreading in the EU for the treatment of cutaneous and subcutaneous lesions of any histological origin. The bases, indications and present clinical trials, targeting internal and deep-seated tumors, will be reported.