Treatment of cancer using pulsed electric field in combination with chemotherapeutic agents or genes.

Electroporation is a standard laboratory technique originally developed for in vitro transfer of molecules into cells. It involves application of electrical pulses ranging from micro- to milliseconds that create transient pores in the cell membrane allowing intracellular access of exogenous molecules. This technique has been successfully applied to regress tumors in animal models by combining electroporation with chemotherapeutic agents--a process known as electrochemotherapy (ECT) which substantially enhance cytotoxicity of some antineoplastic agents. Recently ECT has moved into clinical arena and patients with cutaneous tumors and head and neck cancers have been treated very effectively with ECT. Parallel to ECT, a technique has also been developed which makes it possible to inject plasmid DNA and combine it with in vivo electroporation--electro--genetherapy (EGT)--to deliver in a highly efficient manner both marker and functional genes into target tissue and achieve gene expression. Thus, in vivo electroporation is contributing to the development of a new strategy for cancer treatment with both drugs and genes.