No abstract

Effective treatment of cutaneous and subcutaneous malignant tumours by electrochemotherapy LM Mir', LF Glass23, G Sersa4, J Teissi65, C Domenge6, D Miklavdid7, MJ Jaroszeski38, S Orlowski9, DS Reintgen38, Z Rudolf4, M Belehradek6, R Gilbertl0, M-P Rols5, J Belehradek Jr', JM Bachaud", R DeConti23, B Stabuc4, M Cemazar4, P Coninx'2 and R Heller38 The application of electric pulses to the patients was safe and well tolerated. An instantaneous contraction of the underlying muscles was noticed. Minimal adverse side-effects were observed. ECT was shown to be an effective local treatment. ECT was effective regardless of the histological type of the tumour. Therefore, ECT offers an approach to the treatment of cutaneous and subcutaneous tumours in patients with minimal adverse side-effects and with a high response rate.

Background. Electrochemotherapy is a new antitumor treatment consisting of electrical pulses administered to the tumor several minutes after intravenous injection of bleomycin. In mice, important antitumor effects were observed on subcutaneously transplanted tumors and on spontaneously occurring mammary carcinomas. Cures were obtained after one single treatment combining bleomycin and electric pulses. In humans, permeation nodules seemed an adequate oncologic situation to assay this new procedure. The authors report the first Phase I‐II trial of electrochemotherapy. Methods. Eight patients with 40 permeation nodules of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas were treated with 10 mg/m2 bleomycin intravenous bolus, followed by four or eight short (100 μseconds) and intense (1300 V/cm) pulses administered through two external electrodes located on each side of the treated nodule. Results. An instantaneous painless contraction of the underlying muscles was regularly observed. Neither local nor general side effects were observed, and electrochemotherapy was well tolerated. In addition, a clear local antitumor efficacy was found: 23 (57%) nodules were in clinical complete response within a few days. Conclusion. The absence of toxicity, the good tolerance by the patients, and the net antitumor effects observed are encouraging for additional electrochemotherapy developments in clinical oncology.