A microchip for in vitro parameter determination of cancer electrochemotherapy

This paper presents a microchip that is used to determine the optimal parameters of cancer electrochemotherapy in vitro rapidly. With a constant concentration of bleomycin, anti-cancer agent, the viability of tumor cells as a function of applied electric field is evaluated. The electric field is localized and linearly varied owing to the design of four-leaf hyperbolic electrodes. Under our experimental condition, MCF-7 (human breast adenocarcinoma) cells are destructively damaged by the synergy of electroper-meabilization and bleomycin when the applied electric field exceeds 4×10⁴ V/m. The optimization in in vitro approaches is of guidance to in vivo applications for electrochemotherapy.