ENHANCED EFFECTS OF MULTIPLE TREATMENT ELECTROCHEMOTHERAPY

Electrochemotherapy has been demonstrated to be an effective treatment for cutaneous cancers. The treatment includes administering a chemoth erapeutic agent followed by electric pulses which are applied directly to the tumour. The pulses facilitate delivery of drug through the pla sma membrane. Enhanced delivery Is restricted to the area that has bee n electrically treated. Currently, electrochemotherapy is administered as a single treatment. Complete response rates are high; however, par tial responses are obtained in a fraction of the treated tumours. An i ssue associated with this is whether or not multiple treatments would result in an improved therapy for these partially responding tumours. A multiple treatment electrochemotherapy study was implemented in orde r to address this issue. The study utilized subcutaneously induced mur ine B16 melanoma tumours in C57B1/6 mice. Results showed large tumour volume reductions in multiple treatment groups. In addition, a twofold increase in tumour doubling time and greater percentages of complete responses were found as a result of multiple treatment. These results will be utilized to augment existing clinical trials with respect to r etreating tumours that have partially responded to a single electroche motherapy treatment.