Nanoparticle Mediated Thermal Ablation of Breast Cancer Cells Using a Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Field

In the past, ablation of cancer cells using radiofrequency heating techniques has been demonstrated, but the current methodology has many flaws, including inconsistent tumor ablation and significant ablation of normal cells. Other researchers have begun to develop a treatment that is more selective for cancer cells using metallic nanoparticles and constant electric field exposure. In these studies, cell necrosis is induced by heating antibody functionalized metallic nanoparticles attached to cancer cells. Our approach to studying this phenomenon is to use similarly functionalized metallic nanoparticles that are specific for the T47D breast cancer cell line, exposing these nanoparticle cell conjugates to a nanosecond pulsed electric field. Using fluorescent, polystyrene-coated, iron-oxide nanoparticles, the results of our pilot study indicated that we were able to ablate up to approximately 80% of the cells using 60 ns pulses in increasing numbers of pulses and up to approximately 90% of the cells using 300 ns pulses in increasing numbers of pulses. These quantities of ablated cells were achieved using a cumulative exposure time 6 orders of magnitude less than most in vitro constant electric field studies.