Abstract
Electrochemotherapy (ECT) a combination of high voltage electric pulses and of an anticancer drug has achieved great results in treatment of cutaneous and subcutaneous tumors. Unique properties of ECT (e.g. high specificity for targeting cancer cells, capacity for preserving the innate immune response and the structure of the extracellular matrix) are facilitating its wide spread in clinics. ECT proved to be successfully used in treatment of tumors regardless of its histological origin. Because of ECTs demonstrated efficacy in treatment of cutaneous and subcutaneous tumors, its application deserves to be extended to the treatment of internal tumors. In order to be able to use ECT also for treatment of internal tumors treatment must be performed without interfering with heart electrical activity (safety) while providing appropriate and effective electric pulses to the whole tumor tissue (efficacy). To advance ECT from treating cutaneous and subcutaneous tumors to internal solid tumors, new technological developments are needed that will enable treatment of internal tumors in daily clinical practice. To increase the probability of complete tumor eradication, the electrodes have to be accurately positioned, firstly to provide an adequate extent of electroporation of all tumor cells and secondly not to damage critical healthy tissue or organs if present in its vicinity. This can be achieved by patient-specific numerical treatment planning and image guided insertion of electrodes that will enable proper positioning of the electrodes.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Miklavčič, D. (2011). Electrochemotherapy – An Efficient Electroporation-Based Local Tumor Treatment. In: Jobbágy, Á. (eds) 5th European Conference of the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering. IFMBE Proceedings, vol 37. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23508-5_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23508-5_6
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-23507-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-23508-5
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)