What is electrochemotherapy?

Electrochemotherapy is an additional or alternative cost-effective local treatment option for select cutaneous or subcutaneous tumors as well as incompletely excised tumor scars in pets. Electrochemotherapy utilizes a low dose of chemotherapy with brief followed by high-voltage electrical pulses. The pulses make the cancer cell membrane transiently permeable to chemotherapy and increase absorption of the drug by up to a thousand-fold more than would be expected from routine intravenous (IV) administration. The goal of electrochemotherapy is to enhance the effectiveness of IV chemotherapy while minimizing the systemic side effects of chemotherapy and minimizing the impact on surrounding healthy tissue.

What kinds of tumors can be treated with electrochemotherapy?

In veterinary medicine, electrochemotherapy is most commonly used for tumors located in the skin or just under the skin (subcutaneous) or patients with incompletely excised tumors that do not wish to pursue additional treatment with surgery or radiation therapy.. This includes (but is not limited to) the following:

• Melanoma

• Squamous cell carcinoma

• Soft tissue sarcomas

• Feline injection-site sarcoma

• Localized cutaneous lymphoma in dogs or cats

• Plasmacytic tumors

• Low to intermediate grade mast cell tumors

• Perianal and rectal tumors

• Some internal tumors - on a case by case and location basis

Summary

Electrochemotherapy is a safe and efficacious approach to treating tumors in pets. Its low cost and ease of administration makes it a valuable addition to the currently available oncological therapies. Please contact our service for further information.