What is electrochemotherapy?

Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a minimally invasive locoregional therapy for the treatment of both superficial and deep-seated solid tumours. In most cases, it is performed in Day Case.

ECT can effectively treat tumour nodules of different origins and is also effective at different stages of the disease, both in primary tumours (not candidates for surgery) and in local recurrences or metastases.

It is generally well tolerated and can be performed subsequently or concomitantly with other treatments (radiotherapy, systemic therapies: chemotherapy, hormone therapy, immunotherapy).

How does it work?

Electrochemotherapy combines a single dose of a chemotherapy drug administered intravenously or injected locally into the tumour with electrical pulses applied directly to the tumour tissue by means of one or more needle electrodes.

Electrical pulses permeabilise cancer cells through a phenomenon known as reversible electroporation, allowing a large concentration of the chemotherapy drug to penetrate inside the nucleus. The drug effectiveness is thus greatly increased, selectively killing rapidly proliferating cancer cells while preserving healthy tissue surrounding the tumour.

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