CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF ANTI-TUMORAL EFFECTS OF ELECTROCHEMICAL THERAPY (ECT) ALONE OR IN COMBINATION WITH CHEMOTHERAPY

The present experimental study shows that anticancer agents may accumu late around electrodes placed in saline and in lung when the electrode s are charged with direct electric current. We also observed that elec trochemical therapy (ECT) in combination with chemotherapy was more ef fective for treatment of localized tumours (human lung cancer PC-13 tr ansplated to nude mice) than was ECT or systemic chemotherapy alone. I n a clinical study, 26 patients (27 lesions) received ECT with or with out systemic chemotherapy. We observed a decrease in tumour size in mo re than 70% of the cases, and in two cases the use of ECT alone result ed in complete regression of the tumour. In one case there was an incr ease in tumour size. The main side-effects observed during treatment o f lung cancer was pain during treatment, fever after treatment, and pn eumothorax. We conclude that ECT may be effective in controlling local ised tumours. The clinical use of ECT is, however, associated with sev eral problems and the mechanism of this treatment has not yet been com pletely established.