Lethal and inhibitory effects of steep pulsed electric field on tumor-bearing BALB/c mice.

Exposing cancer cell to steep pulsed electric field (SPEF) with appropriate dosage, the cell may die due to irreversible electrical breakdown (IREB). 48 BALB/c mice inoculated with U/sub 14/ cervical cancer cell were treated with SPEF to study the lethal and inhibitory effects of SPEF on them. They were randomly divided into test group (26) and control group (22), and then four experiments were carried out. Histological observation and ultrastructural observation showed that SPEF destroyed the integrality of tumor cell irreversibly with pyknosis, karyoclasis and karyolysis. Tumor volume measurement indicated that SPEF significantly slowed down the growth speed of tumor. In the experiment of survival time investigation, the average survival time of control group and test group was 33.03 days and no less than 52.05 days respectively, which confirmed that SPEF prolonged the survival time of tumor-bearing mice obviously. With further experimental study and mechanism analysis, this technique is quite possible to be an effective physiotherapy for tumor treatment.